Travel to Provinces

Barren Lands: An Epic Search for Diamonds in the North American Arctic

Format: Paperback
Author: Kevin Krajick
ReleaseDate: 01 October, 2002
Publisher: Owl Books
Rating:

Great Adventure Read
A bit slower and less gripping than Krakauer, but a great read. Barren Lands is one of the great adventure reads. .

Really two stories in one book.
Unlike several of the other writers, Krajick devoted the first part of this book to the land itself. Krajick has written one of many books detailing the hunt for diamonds in the Canadian North. In a fascinating historical journey readers get to follow early explorers and native inhabitants across the most unforgiving wilderness on earth, with stops in the American Southwest, Africa, and South America thrown in to heighten the story.

The second half of the book focuses on the small cadre of competing geologists and explorers who carried the search for diamonds from Arkansas, through New Mexico, Colorado, Southwestern Canada, and eventually to the Arctic. (As a side note, having seen how aggressively Arkansas was searched, I'll never bother prospecting there again. )

As the story progresses it begins to focus on the small group led by Charles Fipke that eventually spearheaded the discovery of the Barren Lands Diamonds. It is here that I think the book digresses too much into the personal live (and failings) of the characters and leaves behind the grand scale of the search. The author also seems to have a somewhat dismissive view of rural communities and inhabitants.

Nonetheless, the story was engaging and a page turner. I recommend it to anyone with an interest in prospecting, diamonds, geology, or Arctic history.
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Fascinating




Sean O'Reilly
Editor-at-Large
Travelers' Tales. This book illuminates the possibilities of the frozen north unlike anything else I've read.

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