| Preface to Second Edition |
| The University of Alaska's happy association with the memory of Alfred H. Brooks has continued over the years, ever since the day in July 1952 when its then new School of Mines building was named for him, and the decision made to publish BLAZING ALASKA'S TRAILS as a literary summation of Brooks' life work. By the mid-nineteen sixties all copies of the original printing of twenty five hundred had been distributed. The continuing requests from University alumni, and others interested in Alaska and its history, as it appeared half a century ago to the most distinguished Alaskan scientist of his day, have caused us to publish this new edition. |
| The reader is offered what is essentially a reprint verbatim of the first edition, but with additions at the end which convert this volume into a true new edition. And to the extent that it is a new edition the editors may be considered to be Ernest N. Wolff of the Mineral Industry Research Laboratory, Charles J. Keim, Professor of Journalism and English, Earl H. Beistline, Dean of the College of Earth Sciences and Mineral Industry, Executive Officer and Provost, and the undersigned. |
| The sympathetic biography of Brooks, by his colleague Philip S. Smith, which appeared in a 1925 bulletin of the Geological Society of America, has been reproduced in full at the end of this new edition, including the full life-time bibliography of over 100 titles of all Brooks' publications. |
| The historic controversy regarding the claim of Dr. Frederick A. Cook to have made the first ascent of Mt. McKinley in 1906 had for a while involved Alfred Brooks and embarrassed him. Evidently stung by this, Brooks in 1914 became the first historian (with his MOUNTAIN EXPLORATION IN ALASKA) to set forth the modern account of the true first ascent some years later. In this second edition, we quote Brooks' own publication about this event, where in the first an editorial reconstruction was presented. The minor errors and misprints which inevitably emerge during the years following a first edition have been collected and corrected in an addendum at the end of this second edition. |
| Alfred Brooks would undoubtedly be thrilled to learn of the immensity of today's North Slope oil discoveries for he was widely quoted in the press in June, 1922, when he told a group in Seattle: "I have every confidence that oil will be found in Alaska, and that the areas in the Territory are extensive." It was his optimistic 1922 assessment of the oil potential which was instrumental in bringing about a topographic and geologic survey of the area and the establishment of Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 on the North Slope. |
 | | TERRIS MOORE |
| Note: This new edition has been made possible through the generosity of Terris Moore, Second President of the University of Alaska. In addition to this, Dr. Moore has contributed, by far, most of the research that has gone into it. |
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