In 1977 oil began to flow south from the Arctic through the controversial Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS). This study considers the TAPS proposal and controversy as an extension (even a culmination) of established processes, policies, and attitudes within Alaska history, American environmental history, and the history of conservation. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In the 1970s, the world's largest construction companies invaded Alaska in a wild rush to build the 800-mile $8 billion trans-Alaska pipeline. Workers by the tens of thousands headed north, hoping to make their fortunes working on the pipeline, in a stampede that dramatically affected Alaska. With the avalanche of big money and new arrivals came new problems: drugs, prostitution, gambling, and violent crime. Rapid economic and social changes ultimately touched the lives of virtually every Alaskan. Journalist Dermot Cole, dean of the Alaska press corps, recalls the best of the pipeline stories with humor, authenticity, and drama.

WALKING MY DOG, JANE is Rozell's tribute to his adopted state and to the travel partner who carried Rozell's heart, and her own backpack, during a summer spent outdoors walking the 800-mile length of the trans-Alaska pipeline.

The building of the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline, its impact on the Alaskan economy, and its environmental and social effects on the land, the people, and the wildlife along its path.

Little Did We Know tells the remarkable story of the Trans Alaska Pipeline through the eyes of John Miller, who shouldered responsibility for financing Sohio’s portion of the Alaskan venture that transformed the company from a small, regional oil refiner and marketer into the fifteenth largest US industrial corporation. TAPS, as the pipeline is known, carries crude oil 800 miles from the Prudhoe Bay field on the North Slope of Alaska to the ice-free port of Valdez on the state’s southern coast. Building the pipeline—one of the largest private industrial projects ever undertaken—was an incredible feat of engineering, and for Sohio, of financing. This is a saga about an engineer with no formal training in finance surmounting an onslaught of financial challenges, raising more than $6 billion over a decade—something many thought was well beyond Sohio’s capabilities.

The actual building of the line is described and the controversial issues of environmental impact, timing, planning and accountability are discussed.

Subzero temperatures, whiteout blizzards, and even the lack of restrooms didn’t deter them. Nor did sneers, harassment, and threats. Wildcat Women is the first book to document the life and labor of pioneering women in the oil fields of Alaska’s North Slope. It profiles fourteen women who worked in the fields, telling a little-known history of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. These trailblazers conquered their fears to face hazardous working and living conditions, performing and excelling at “a man’s job in a man’s world.” They faced down challenges on and off the job: they drove buses over ice roads through snowstorms; wrestled with massive pipes; and operated dangerous valves that put their lives literally in their hands; they also fought union hall red tape, challenged discriminatory practices, and fought for equal pay—and sometimes won. The women talk about the roads that brought them to this unusual career, where they often gave up comfort and convenience and felt isolated and alienated. They also tell of the lifelong friendships and sense of family that bonded these unlikely wildcats. The physical and emotional hardship detailed in these stories exemplifies their courage, tenacity, resilience, and leadership, and shows how their fight for recognition and respect benefited woman workers everywhere.

Pipeline security guard, Dan Webster, and pump station technician, Gwen Stevens, discover a nuclear device inside an ultrasonic inspection pig, and are convinced it is a part of a sinister conspiracy involving the pipeline. They discover a multinational plot, Cinch Knot, masterminded by influential oil and shipping leaders to restrict the flow of oil by nuking the pipeline and driving the price of oil upward. Thus, the fate of the Alaska oil pipeline, Valdez, pristine, Prince William sound, and economic stability of the world, as well as the lives of thousands of people are threatened unless the bomb is disarmed and the schemers are stopped. Fast moving -- Cinch Knot's 200 pages takes the reader on an intriguing international chase to stop the scheme, and to the story's surprise ending.

A comprehensive history of the native claims settlement act and the legislation that authorized the trans-Alaska pipeline.