This article appeared in the Jan. 1, 1983 issue of The Oregonian. Murie died on Oct. 14, 2003.
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Story by Tad Bartimus of the Associated Press
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Mardy Murie's field biologist husband, so precise in his specimens, drawings, and reports to the Biological Survey (now the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), needed her hand at the helm of the household routine.
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"I sort of worship efficiency," says the woman who often lived for weeks with three children in a 8-by-10-foot tent while her mate studied elk in the meadows of Jackson Hole.
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Murie speaks with calm firmness. She seems to draw her manner from the natural world surrounding her. She walks softly but with a sure foot, careful not to snap a twig or disturb a wildflower. She abandons an alpine trail to give right-of-way to a moose who takes priority in her order of things.
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She punctuates a paragraph with a pause to watch a grouse glide by, then resumes talking when the winged passage is done.
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"I was destined for the outdoors. My stepfather always said there must have been some gypsy in me. He'd say, 'Oh, that one—if she fell in the creek she'd come up with an apron of fish.'"
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Born in Seattle in 1902, her wilderness odyssey began at the age of 9. She boarded a steamer with her mother and went north to Alaska to join her stepfather in the gold rush settlements of Fairbanks.
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After three years of college "outside," as Alaskans call the lower 48 states, Mardy Gillette returned to Fairbanks for her senior year at the new Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. In 1924 she became the first woman to be graduated from what is now the University of Alaska.
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By then she had met Olaus, a Minnesota native born to Norwegian immigrants who were exploring the vast, uncharted interior of Alaska for the Biological Survey. Their three-year courtship culminated in a wedding Aug. 19, 1924, in a little Episcopal mission at Anvik, on the Yukon River. The newlyweds then steamed up the Yukon to the Koyukuk River to await the winter freezeup that would enable them to travel the north country by dogsled while Olaus studied migrating caribou.
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During their first month of marriage, she kept house in a loaned cabin and prepared for the journey. She was only 20.
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"I thought of all the women who have kept a log cabin warm and ready on the far reaches of various frontiers," she wrote in her book, "Two in the Far North."
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"As I worked I thought of these women, feeling kinship with them. Confusing, being a woman, eagerness for the new adventure fighting within one with love of a cozy homekeeping. Did men ever feel pulled this way?"
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| Margaret Murie: Part 1, Part 3 |
| Links & Other Articles: |
| Margaret Murie died in her home October 19, 2003. She was 101 years old. Murie Obituary (word-doc) |
| The Murie Center |
| 1998 Presidential Medal of Freedom Awarded to Margaret Murie |
| 1998 Robert Marshall Award Winner |
| Wyoming Citizen of the Century - 2000 Community Service Category |
| The Wilderness Society, article about Mardy Murie. |
| Recipient of the State of Washington Governor's Writers' Day Award for Island Between |
| Received Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Alaska for her outstanding contribution to the life and literature of the Northland. |
| Books/Video: |
| Murie, Margaret. Two in the Far North. 1962. Reissued by Don Schackleford 1997. Alaska Northwest Books, AK. ISBN: 088240489X |
| Bryant, Jennifer & Castro, Antonio Margaret Murie: A Wilderness Life. Twentyfirst Century Books, NY. 1993. ISBN: 0805022201 |
| Mardy Murie Film Project - Arctic Dance The Mardy Murie Story. A Film About a Life That Made a Difference. Directed by Bonnie Kreps, Written by Charles Craighead, Narrated by Harrison Ford. |
| Craighead, Charles & Kreps, Bonnie. The Mardy Murie Story. Book. Graphic Arts Center Pub Co. 2002. ISBN: 1558686002 |
| University of Alaska established Scholarships & Funds : |
| UAF Scholarships: Olas Murie Caribou Fellowship. Dr. David Klein established this scholarship to recognize academically excellent graduate students at UAF whose thesis projects have their major focus on the biology, ecology or management of caribou. |
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