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Show Full Fathom Five For the first twelve hours after my father returned, his body still wrinkled from time spent immersed in water and wearing clothes that were three days old, he was under investigation for the murder of his brother. I imagine it was only protocol for the rangers and the Fairbanks police; death in a national park requires the federal government to file a report whether that death is caused by a grizzly, an avalanche, or a body that just gives out. Still, I wonder if there was a moment in the police station, days away from the last time he had slept, his brother's body on its way to a temporary morgue, that my father's thoughts turned to questions of intention-his own or his brother's-and the ease with which a body can leave this earth. The Alatna River confluences, along with the Killik and Nigu Rivers, in the Gates of the Arctic National Park in northern Alaska, high up in the Brooks Range. One of six rivers in the National Park dedicated "wild and scenic" and therefore federally protected, the river begins as a trickle and eventually builds to class III rapids on its eighty-three mile journey to confluence with the Koyukuk. The Park itself, over eight million acres of protected wildlife, roadless, and therefore one of the most remote regions in the U.S., is home to the Arrigetch mountains with granitic spires that reach their fingers 6,000 feet in the air, earning them the native name for "finger of hand outstretched." On the river one might see caribou, moose, Dall sheep, eagles, grizzly, and even the occasional seagull far from the shores of the Pacific. 235 |