The Polar Bears of Barrow, Alaska: The U.S.'s Most Northern Community - Softcover

John decided to begin photographing polar bears and some of his adventures so his grandchildren spread across the country could enjoy them. He also sells polar bear prints to Barrow residents and tourists who visit the U.S.'s most northern city of about 5,000 Eskimo and "tunnuq" (white) residents.

"People don't want to buy the photos without the stories that go with them," he found, and that is why this tome of photos and stories was created.

John Tidwell began photographing polar bears in and around his home town of Barrow, Alaska as a retirement project after selling his tour guide business to the local village corporation, Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corp. (UIC). The business operated a pair of 15-passenger vans with mat tracks, which put only two and a half pounds of pressure per square inch on the tundra it drove over. Oftentimes, visitors to Barrow used the vans to view the polar bears that could be seen on the nearby ice and, on occasion, wander ashore.

Born in Seattle November 28, 1945, he is a 1964 graduate of Ingraham High School there. He worked for the Vitamilk Dairy in Washington State as a milkman before his superiors saw he was a natrually gifted salesman with the "gift of gab."

He was promoted to doing commercial sales and flourished in that role. In May 1980, his brother in law asked if he would come to Barrow to manage a plumbing shop for six weeks. The wage was to be $27 an hour, seven days a week, 12 hours a day with time and a half over eight hours a day and double time on Saturday and Sunday. The job ended up lasting until October 1980, when he returned to Seattle.

In April of the next year he received a telephone call from a friend offering him a little less pay, but good benefits at the North Slope Borough housing department. He took the job and traveled throughout the vast North Slope Borough on Alaska's North Slope repairing borough buildings. Everything was going well until 3:05 pm May 24, 1996 when the Piper Navajo he was traveling in crashed on the ice off of mainland Alaska's westernmost village of Pt. Hope. Although the oceanic ice they crashed on may have saved him from drowning or freezing to death, he broke his back and shoulder. Five others on the flight were also injured.

After three years of recuperation, he tried to go ack to work, but found he could nto sit or stand comfortably. After retireing he began the Arctic Adventure tour company. He and his wife Lorna...