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Field Notes

The Black Beauty: A Short History of Cast Iron Cookware

There is something about a cast iron skillet that tugs at the heart of any outdoorsman. It’s almost as if its burley black surface has retained a hint of every fire it has hovered over and every dish it has cooked. Holding one, you can feel its history coursing through it, almost like it has a story it wants to tell over a couple of beverages by the bonfire.
Well, it does have a story, one that is almost as old as recorded history.

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3 Min
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Field Notes

Dispatches from the North: Kotzebue Sound Salmon

“Fish are hitting already, splashing. Seals surface nearby. Andrew whoops, “Rich!” and roars down-current to find a spot. I wring my sopping gray gloves, curl stiff cold fingers around the lines, and start pulling in salmon.”

Seth Kantner has fished commercially in Alaska for 49 seasons. He’s also a best-selling author, wildlife photographer, and wilderness guide. During changing seasons in the arctic, we’re excited to have Seth writing for us about his life in Alaskan Arctic and on Kotzebue Sound. Read the first of the series exclusively on The Filson Journal.

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5 Min
portrait of Mary in the woods
Profiles

Mary Goddard: Imprints of Copper and Community

Carved into silver, the fiddlehead catches my eye as light reflects off a displayed cuff’s surface. We are standing in Mary Goddard’s studio in Sheet’Ká (Sitka), Alaska. On the wall, seemingly fresh splotches of paint sample shades of green that seem to bring the most northern rainforest into the small space. Copper sheets, large unfinished tina’as, and a formline eagle and raven sit waiting to take flight on her worktable.

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5 Min
man carrying pole spear on the beach
How-To's

How to Make a Pole Spear

Just under the surface of the frigid ocean is a bounty of saltwater fish to be foraged. Many an outdoors person would agree that, in a survival scenario, the ocean can often be a far more productive source of food than the land, especially the cold, nutrient-rich waters that circulate around our shores. But how to pursue these fish? Here, we’ll show you how to build a pole-spear, a time-tested, simple tool that is incredibly effective for putting fish on your dinner plate.

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5 Min
Man transfers trout from one pond to another
Profiles

Revival of a Trout Hatchery

Cold water creeks and rivers course through Appalachia like veins and arteries. Over the eons, their breadth and depth have carved through earth and stone to spread life across this mountain chain. Forests of rhododendron, maple, and dogwood trees line their banks, along with healthy carpets of lush ferns. Beneath the surface of these streams hovers of trout swim year-round, and whenever Ty Walker of Smoke in Chimneys wades into the water and casts his fly, he now holds the trout in higher esteem than ever.

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3 Min
Aerial of ocean in Alaska
Profiles

Oceans Initiative: on a mission to protect marine life

Conservation scientist Erin Ashe, PhD, says we all have a “cetacean story”: the moment in our lives when we realize that whales and dolphins—the spellbinding mammals she studies—exist. Ashe was four years old when hers happened. A family of orcas swam below her aunt’s cliffside home on San Juan Island in the state of Washington, announcing their presence with the unmistakable whoosh of air being exhaled through blowholes. Ashe was awestruck, and insatiably curious about the 12,000-pound creatures—a feeling that would direct the course of her studies and, eventually, her life’s work.

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2 Min
Fisherwoman
Profiles

Filson x Rugged Seas

The idea was simple: collect used bibs, give them a good cleaning, then cut and repurpose the materials to give the bibs a second life. In practice, of course, it’s never that easy, but by building on the expertise of manufacturers and businesses in and around their hometown of Cape Elizabeth, ME, Rugged Seas has been able to grow from a home-based operation to one that involves not just their local community but also working waterfronts up and down the coast.

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3 Min
Fire-rescue boat
Profiles

Newport News Marine Incident Response Team

Housed inside Firehouse 1 in downtown Newport News, the twenty-four firefighters of this unique team spend large portions of their time out on the water helping those in need. As part of a large and complex response system, they are often the first team on site when a call from dispatch comes in. Working closely with the U.S. Coast Guard, police, fire department, and other entities, they head out at all times of day and in all sorts of weather. Their expertise is known in the region, and the Newport News MIRT is well respected.

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3 Min
Portrait of female fisherwoman Chloe Ivanoff
Profiles

Chloe Ivanoff: finding her sea legs

Shortly after Ivanoff began working seasonal jobs in geology, she started to feel she’d missed an important rite of passage by not having spent a summer living and working aboard the New Dawn. She decided to train for it by joining her father’s crew for the annual sea cucumber harvest, typically done in October. The excursions were short, just 3-5 days at a time, and took place in calm bays, which helped Ivanoff build her confidence aboard the New Dawn.

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3 Min
Woman on horseback in the wilderness
Profiles

Lianna Spooner: preserving traditions & the environment

There’s been a revival in the art of “packing” in recent years. Homesteaders Lianna Spooner and her partner Chris Eyer spend part of their year working with the U.S. Forest Service and nonprofits specializing in wilderness maintenance. This non-mechanized mode of transport helps preserve the land when carrying resources or personnel. We reached out to writer & photographer Sara Forrest to document a first-hand experience from the field.

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5 Min