Backpack

This backpack is a commercial pack frame that was heavily modified by Richard Proenneke over the thirty years he lived at Twin Lakes. He used it to haul a wide variety of things including axes, wood, antlers, fishing gear, stones, animal meat and hides, and garbage. Proenneke, Lake Clark’s most famous resident, is an icon of wilderness values and an inspiration to those who value simplicity, a direct connection with nature, self-reliance, and ingenuity.

In 1967, Proenneke began crafting what would become his cabin and wilderness home for the next thirty years at Twin Lakes. He brought a desire to know the wilderness around him,and with tireless travels on foot and by canoe he did just that. His pack frame, which traveled with him across Lake Clark country, is a symbol of Proenneke’s affinity and care for the land and its creatures which, along with his photos and journals, played an early and important role in the wilderness movement in Alaska and the United States.