Kickstarter

Everyday contributions continue to come in and I'm pleased that people from all over are interested enough to pitch in. It's great to have made my goal, but as some of you know I was very conservative in setting that goal. It is about half the money I need to cover all the costs associated with Snap Decisions. So, in this case, more is more. But however it turns out I am extremely grateful for what I have received. Thank you all.

Here's the second 2-page spread I'm having to delete from the book to make my 152 page count. Text below:

THE PIPELINE

On the twentieth anniversary of when oil began flowing through the trans-Alaska oil pipeline I spent two weeks traveling its length.

In May 1987, I swapped vehicles with photo editor Murphy: his Ford Explorer for my Turbo Saab. I slept in the back of his SUV and carried two extra 5-gallon jugs of gas and two spare tires on a roof rack for my journey.

You don’t see much of the pipeline above ground until you get to Interior Alaska. North of Fairbanks photo potential becomes much greater. And the Haul Road (now know as the Dalton Highway) was an adventure to drive.

North of the Alaska Range the pipeline snaked toward Isabel Pass (far left). The zigzag design and fins on top of the pilings allow for geologic movement and thermal expansion and contraction to keep the 800-mile pipeline from heaving and rupturing.

Highballing down the Haul Road, a tractor-trailer headed south from the Brooks Range.

With the pipeline he was charged with protecting reflected in his sunglasses, J.C. Skarda surveyed the line’s route across the North Slope plain.

I was on the job, but who would plan a vacation to Mile 0? German tourists would.

The package of photos and accompanying stories were published in a special anniversary issue of ADN’s Sunday “We Alaskans”.