Cindy Hensley Martin

Alice's Arctic Letters Cindy Hensley Martin

"I Went Farthest North!"


Bound for the Arctic regions beyond Alaska and into the Northwest Territory of Canada, Alice begins her writings to younger sister Ruth explaining her sudden passage north, to live among the Eskimos in 1924! There she finds herself fulfilling many roles, wife and mother chief among them. Teacher, midwife, fur trader, nurse, doctor, and general store owner are among the other responsibilities she fulfills; all while often left alone as her hubby Ollie works the fur trapping lines.

Preserved here are Alice's letters home wherein she describes her life in the harsh Arctic environment, her sustaining of her family and neighbors; Arctic natives being chief among them. All the while experiencing a world previously unknown to any other white females, as she was the first to live so far north. Survival hinges on limited, yet close relationships with both fellow whites and natives in the Arctic territories of Canada and the United States. Relationships held dear as she often describes her endless love by saying, "Love . . . Until the North Pole melts!"