Charles Caldwell Hawley tells the story of a pioneering miner and aviator who arrived in Alaska in 1910 equipped with an optimistic belief in the transformative power of technology. As a graduate of Yale's prestigious Sheffield Scientific School, Dunkle managed copper mines for such captains of industry as J P Morgan and the Guggenheims and developed what would eventually become Alaska Airlines. In these pages, Hawley also paints a portrait of the disputed land that Dunkle came to call home. At the dawn of the twentieth century, Alaska was as important to the United States for its copper and coal as it is currently for oil and natural gas. Regulating access and use of these resources frequently ignited political wildfires that swept far beyond the boundaries of the territory. As Hawley demonstrates, Dunkle's life in Alaska spanned a large part of the region's early history under the US flag and provides valuable insight into the environmental, social, and economic changes wrought by industrial expansion and development.