Discovering the Concept of “Quiet Adventure” in Alaska

When 36-year-old Rockwell Kent stepped on the pebble-strewn shore of Fox Island in August 1918, his life was in turmoil. He couldn’t earn enough money as an artist to support his wife and five children and had to supplement his income working as an architect and carpenter. Plus, he had a mistress, and his wife knew, making divorce a real possibility.

Alaska author Doug Capra, who writes frequently about Kent, describes the artist as going through a “dark night of the soul” at the time. To get through it, Kent realized he needed both inspiration for his art and solitude for self-reflection. Alaska fit on both accounts and offered him the opportunity for what he would later call “a quiet adventure.”

Ironically, while Kent wanted solitude, he didn’t want to travel alone. Since his neither his wife nor his mistress would join him, he took his 9-year-old son (also named Rockwell but called Rocky) to Seward, where the two met Lars Matt Olson. When the 71-year-old fox farmer and goat rancher invited them to join him at nearby Fox Island, Kent accepted.

Capra believes Kent had a “romanticized view of the wilderness” and was seeking a Walden-like experience initially. Bit by bit, though, reality sank in. During the first 17 days, it rained every day but one. Then, in September, he and Rocky were nearly swept to sea struggling to cross the 12 miles back from Seward to Fox Island. By October, Kent was ready to go home, according to Capra.

Instead, he stuck it out. Between chores like chopping wood, Kent explored with Rocky and painted the landscape. Late at night, after Rocky fell asleep, he wrote letters to his wife and mistress and kept a journal, which would later become the book Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure.

The isolation began to wear on Kent, though, especially when Olson went to Seward in January and failed to return as promptly as expected. However, it also forced him to look inward, and as a result, he produced a body of artwork that would propel him to fame when he returned to New York. Examples of that artwork are on display at the Rockwell Kent Gallery at the Plattsburgh State Art Museum in Plattsburgh, New York.

Kent described his time in Alaska best in his journal when he wrote, “These are the times in life — when nothing happens — but in quietness the soul expands.”

In March of 1919, he and Rocky left months ahead of schedule even though Olson begged him to stay through the summer to see the glaciers that today make up Kenai Fjords National Park. The wilderness and isolation had finally proved too much. He moved back to the lower 48, where he was a prolific painter, muralist, and illustrator, as well as a political activist. He died in 1971.

Not much has changed since Kent first landed on the island. Today, Kenai Fjords Wilderness Lodge stands near where Kent stayed in Olson’s goat cabin, and in each of the lodge’s cabins, a copy of Wilderness: A Journal of Quiet Adventure rests on the bedside table. I picked one up and started reading on a recent stay at the lodge, drawn to it by the concept of a “quiet adventure.”

Capra understands how that idea could be so appealing today. “We’re always available, but we do this to ourselves,” he explains, referring to our phones and technology. “It’s an addiction. People want quietness.”

Even with roughly 15 other guests plus staff onsite, I experienced this quietness on Fox Island. Since the property doesn’t have Wi-Fi or power for charging devices except in the main building, there’s no easy way to call, text, or email. I felt cut off from the world in my cabin and relished the solitude.

Because of the near constant rain, I spent hours pleasure reading in my cabin, something I rarely get the chance to do at home, and as the rain let up, I strolled along the shore watching for seals and dolphins. Just as Kent sought the company of Olson, I walked to the main lodge late in the afternoon both days to socialize with the other guests over a glass of happy hour wine.

Luckily, you don’t have to journey to Alaska or trek deep into the woods for a quiet adventure. It’s something anyone can feel anywhere, according to Capra. You just need to spend time looking inward, reflecting, and living in the moment. After all, as Kent learned, the wilderness didn’t necessarily lay before him; the real wilderness was in his own mind.

Kent wrote of his and Rocky’s time on Fox Island, “It seems that we have both together by chance turned out of the beaten crowded way and come to stand face-to-face with that infinite and unfathomable thing which is the wilderness; and here we have found OURSELVES, for the wilderness is nothing else.”