Life on the Edge of the Arctic Ocean

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Life on the Edge of the Arctic Ocean

The memoir of a unique family who has lived for over sixty years on an island in the Colville River Delta where it butts up against the edge of the Arctic Ocean along Alaska’s northern coast.
An amazing saga of a frontier-homestead life laced with hard work, adventures, struggles, joys, setbacks, and successes—all wrapped in a fierce independent and free lifestyle.

Teena Helmericks

Teena Helmericks is a frontier woman who has lived and thrived along the edge of the Arctic coast of Alaska. After her childhood in Utqiaġvik, the northern most village in Alaska, and school years in Washington State, she then took up life on an island in the Colville River Delta where the river meets the Arctic Ocean. There her life progressed on the family’s three-generation homestead-like parcel of land from meager means and extreme remoteness to modern homes and many neighbors.
Teena and her family witnessed the discovery and development of the North Slope Gas and Petroleum Industry. They observed many changes across the whole North Slope over the years as local governments formed and villages expanded along with this petroleum industry. She and her husband raised four boys who thrived on homeschooling and their frontier-style life laced with adventure, hard work, and exceptional wilderness expertise.
Articles by Teena have appeared in Alaska: The Magazine of Life on the Last Frontier and the Prudhoe Bay Journal.