Alaska’s ‘Grandmother of the Conservation Movement’

Margaret Murie was the first woman to graduate from the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines. Her adventures began with her biologist husband on their honeymoon, which they spent studying birds and traveling over 500 miles by dogsled to research the caribou.

Her experiences led her advocate for the passage of the Wilderness Act and persuade President Eisenhower to set aside land for the Arctic National Wildlife Range. She also worked on the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which protects over 100 million acres of Alaska wilderness. Murie documented her research expeditions in “Two Far in the North.”

– Eve Lederman, The Alaska 100