On Friday, September 21, 2018, at 2:00 pm, as part of the Herrin Area Historical Society Guest Lecture Series, Joe Wilkins a Cobden native and Professor Emeritus UIS, Air Force Captain will discuss, his book, Gates of the Arctic National Park: Twelve Years of Wilderness Exploration.  The event is free and open to the public. 

Joe Wilkins has now accumulated more than half a century of experience in the wilds of northern Alaska since receiving training in arctic wilderness survival in 1966.  During the 1970s he began hiking, backpacking and camping in the region which, in 1980, was officially designated Gates of the Arctic National Park. A complex land of breathtaking contrasts, this frontier is exceptional in no other region in North America does it get colder, darker, or wilder.  Its remote beauty and extensive human history imbue the land with an elemental and visceral sense of inspiration for those who visit. Gates of the Arctic National Park: Twelve Years of Wilderness Exploration provides thorough, accurate and detailed information about Gates of the Arctic National Park along with a collection of Wilkins’ own personal photographs. Wilkins has created a definitive, perennial book about one of the country’s most enchanting national parks that will stand the test of time.