Big Miracle (49 page)

He and his Hamilton Communications staff, Dawn Harris, Ted Grybowski, George Corby, Mary Pat and Jim Kelly, John Laidlaw, and Pete Zangeri, kept the doors to NY News Corp. open. Mike Kelly's cooperation and patience will be long appreciated.

So, too, will the friendship and dedication of NY News Corp. Marketing Director Ed Heifer. Thanks to Jack Malick who had the sense to stay away from Barrow.

Thanks to MarkAir Cargo Director Ed Rogers, who arranged Barrow transportation, and thanks, too, to Joe Schrier for his work in adapting this story to the visual medium.

Michael Richardson and I mixed the mortar and laid the bricks, but Hillel Black was the project foreman. He took a chance on a then-untested author. His vision gave the book meaning, purpose, and direction. He knew precisely where he wanted it to go and how to get it there.

Margaret McBride, my expert liaison, told me how unheard it was for a first-time author to receive so much attention from anyone, let alone a man as respected as Hillel Black. Only now, when I face the prospect of getting along without him, do I begin to realize how much I appreciate, admire, and respect my new friend, Hillel Black.

Finally, to Mom and Dad, nothing could begin to describe my deep appreciation and love for you both. All I can say is, “Thanks.”

TRIBUTE

What kind of a person would put up with me day and night for eight straight months, never issue a complaint—well, hardly ever issue a complaint—and be even more a joy to work with at the project's end than he was at the beginning? Michael Richardson, that's who.

Fortunately, I never understood how much work was involved in writing a book. If I did, it would never have happened.

To Michael Richardson, a man of high honor, integrity, and decency, if not ribald humor, you have my deepest thanks, and heartfelt best wishes.

Index

The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages in your e-book. Please use the search function on your e-reading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

ABC

Nightline

World News This Morning

World News Tonight

Adams, Billy

Admiral Makarov
(icebreaker)

Ahmaogak, George

Ahmaogak, Roy

Air Force, U.S.

screw tractor

weather satellite

airlifts of whales

Airport Inn (Barrow)

Alascom (company)

Alaska.
See also specific locations
e.g.
Barrow (Alaska)

acquisition from Russia

commercial fishing industry

cost of living

described

outsiders

state taxes

Alaska Distributors

Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC)

Alaska Federation of Natives (AFN)

Alaska
(Michener)

Alaska National Guard.
See
National Guard, Alaskan

Alaska National Petroleum Reserve

Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA)

Albert, Tom

Aldi Supermarkets

Aldrin, Edwin Buzz

Aleutian Islands

Allen, Billy Bob.
See also
VECO, Inc.

arrives in Barrow

returns to Barrow

Amoco

amphipods

Anchorage (Alaska)

Coast Guard in

Department of Wildlife Management in

George Parks Highway

Anchorage Daily News

Anchorage International Airport

Anderson, Terry

Andreeva, Svetlana

A&P

Archimedean Screw Tractor

Arctic Challenger
(icebreaker)

Arctic Circle

Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)

Armstrong, Neil

Army Corps of Engineers

Ásgrímsson, Halldór

Associated Press (AP)

Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO)

Aurora I satellite

Austin American Statesman

Australia

Baja, California

Baker, Chuck

Baker, James A. III

banking collapse of 2008

Barrow, John

Barrow (Alaska)

Airport Inn (Barrow)

alcohol in

and Cold War

cost of living

described

Distant Early Warning Line (DEW Line) radar station

income per capita

Mayor's Jobs Program

modernization of

North Slope Mayor's Conference

oil industry

origins of name

outsiders

Pepe's North of the Border

prohibition

Sam & Lee's Chinese restaurant

self-reliance

as “Top of the World”

Top of the World Hotel

water shortage

whaling captains' meeting

Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport

winter months in

Barrow High School

BBC

bears.
See
polar bears (Nanook)

Beaufort Sea

Beechey, Frederick

Beluga whales

Benson, Ed

Benson, Rod

Bering Sea

Berliner, Jeff

biofuel

bird-jamming

blue whales

Bone (baby whale)

Boston Globe

bowhead whales

Brange, Jim

Bristol Bay

British, Petroleum (BP), Deepwater Horizon blowout (2010)

Broadcast News
(movie)

Brokaw, Tom

Brooks Mountain Range

Brower, Arnold, Jr.

Brower, Charlie

Brower, Johnny

Browerville (Barrow)

Bruce, Kevin

Burslem, Ken

Burton, Kent

Bush, George H. W.

California gray whales

breathing holes

breathing system of

cooperation of

death by drowning

death of Bone (baby whale)

development of story

Exxon Valdez
oil spill and

first filming of

first reports of stranding

harvesting discussions

and Malik (whaling captain)

migration patterns

moves toward freedom

naming

population in 1988

Canada

icebreakers

in World War II

Captain Cook Hotel (Anchorage)

Caras, Roger

caribou

Carroll, Geoff

deicers and

at Department of Wildlife Management

first reports of whale stranding

Cindy Lowry of Greenpeace and

Whales' final move toward freedom

Carroll, Marie

Carroll, Tom

alternative options to free whales

arrives in Barrow

described

hoverbarge operation

ice bullet and

Bonnie Mersinger and

Ronald Reagan and

rumors of Soviet involvement and

screw tractor

Carson, Johnny

cartoons

Caterpillar tractors

Caudle, Oran

daily routine

described

filming of stranded whales

management of outside media

CBS

chainsaws.
See also
hole cutting

Channel 20 (Barrow)

C-130 Hercules cargo plan

Chilingarov, Arthur

Chittick, Harry

Christianity

Chugach Mountains

Chukchi Sea

Churchill, Winston

CNN

coal

Coast Guard, U.S.

Cold War

commercial fishing industry

Comstock, Earl

ConocoPhillips

Control Data Corporation

corn farming

Cousins, Gregory

Cowper, Steve

Crosby, Randy

Crouse, Pearl

Crowley Maritime Corporation

Daily Telegraph

Davis, Jason

Deepwater Horizon blowout (2010)

deicers

Department of Commerce, U.S.

Department of the Interior, U.S.

Mineral Management Service (MMS)

Dickens, Charles

Distant Early Warning (DEW Line)

dogs

Duberstein, Kenneth

Dukakis, Michael

Dunn, Bob

Dunnegan, Pete

economic terrorism

Eisenstein, Sergei

Elson, Thomas

Elson Lagoon

Endangered Species Act (1973)

environmentalists.
See also
Greenpeace International

oil industry and

wealth effect and

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)

Eskimo butter

Eskimos

and alcohol

diseases from outsiders

as hibernators

ice hole cutting

Inupiat

media myth

oil industry and

“pure”

sled/ski ride market

subsistence hunting

subsistence whaling

weather conditions and

whale worship

Eskimo Scouts

ethanol

Evans, William

Exxon

Exxon Valdez
spill in Prince William Sound (1989)

Eyewitness News

Fadlallah, Sayyed Hussein

Fairbanks (Alaska)

Fauske, Dan

Ferrian, Greg

Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S.

Fitzgerald, Brian

Fitzwater, Marlin

freeing of whales

Friedman, Sonya

Gallagher, Susan

George, Craig

deicers and

at Department of Wildlife Management

first reports of whale stranding

Cindy Lowry of Greenpeace and

Whales' final move toward freedom

Germany.
See
West Germany

Good Morning America

Gorbachev, Mikhail

graphite harpoons

Gray, Bruce

Gray whales.
See
California gray whales

great white sharks

green energies

Greenpeace International.
See also
Lowry, Cindy; Plowden, Campbell

ARCO and

coalition with VECO, Inc.

commercial whaling and

gray whales of Barrow and

origins of

Soviet icebreakers and

whaling and

Green River Formation

Gulf of Mexico

Gunnarsson, Arni

Gusoff, Carolyn

gyrostabilizers

Haller, Mike

Hammer, Armand

Hannibalsson, Jón Baldvin

Hansen, Jerry

Harding, Warren G.

Harvey, Jim

Hasquet, Julie

Hazelwood, Joe

helicopters

ice bullet

news media use of

Sikorsky CH-54 Skycranes

Hermannsson, Steingrimur

Hezbollah

Higgins, Rich

Hitler, Adolf

Hodel, Donald

hole cutting

deicers

Eskimo chainsaws and axes

Husqvarna chainsaws

ice bullet

portable water jet pumps

screw tractor

Hollis, Dudley

horizontal drilling

hoverbarge

Hufford, Gary

humpback whales

Hunter, Holly

Hurt, William

hydraulic fracturing

hydrometeorology

icebreakers.
See also
hole cutting; hoverbarge;
specific icebreakers

Coast Guard

Soviet

ice bullet

Iceland

boycott by West Germany

whaling industry

Industrial Revolution

intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs)

intermarriage

International Union for Conservation of Nature

Polar Bear Specialist Group

International Whaling Commission (IWC)

moratorium on commercial whaling

quota system

interspecies communication

Inuits.
See
Eskimos

Inupiat Eskimos

Itta, Brenda

IWC.
See
International Whaling Commission (IWC)

“Jane Whale” (pseudonym)

Japan

attack on Pearl Harbor

NTV

reaction to “Operation Breakout”

whale products

whaling industry

Jennings, Peter

journalists.
See specific reporters, stations, networks, and publications

Kahanamoku, Duke

Kasco Marine deicers

Kawamura, Masu

KBRW-AM

kickers

killer whales

King, Marvin

KING-TV (Seattle)

Koppel, Ted

KSTP-TV (Minneapolis)

KTUU-TV (Anchorage)

KTVF-TV (Fairbanks)

Kuparuk

Laurence, Charles

leads

Leathard, Pete

Lebanon

Lefevre, Greg

Lenin, Vladimir

Lewellen, Bob

liberation of whales

live shots

looping

Lowry, Cindy

and Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission (AEWC) meeting

arrives in Barrow

death of Bone (baby whale)

Department of Wildlife Management and

described

at hearing for Bristol Bay

hoverbarge operation

rumors of Soviet involvement

VECO, Inc. and

whales move toward freedom

whales of Barrow and

whales of Turnagain Arm and

Mackey, Dick

Malik (whaling captain)

as Great Whaler

and stranded whales

Marine Mammal Protection Act (1972)

MarkAir

Mars space probe

Matumeak, Warren

McClure, Jessica

McTaggart, David

Mersinger, Bonnie

Michener, James

Miller, Ben

Mississippi River system

Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co.

Mongeau, Steve

Morozov, Pavel

Morris, Ron

anger toward Eskimos

brainstorming session

deicers and

ice bullet and

as NOAA coordinator of whale rescue

rumors of Soviet involvement

screw tractor and

Soviet icebreakers and

whales' final move toward freedom

Mukluk Island

mukluks (sealskin boots)

muktuk (whale blubber)