Lillian Alling’s story begins and ends with a mystery. Where did she come from and why did she want to return there? This book is an attempt to find the answers to those questions through a careful investigation and analysis of every word I could source that has been written about her in the last eighty-four years.
What I learned was that she was an extraordinary woman who achieved an extraordinary feat. She walked alone across thousands of miles for more than three years. Today people sail around the world or walk great distances or climb high mountains, but they are accompanied by radios, sponsors, money, the support of family and friends, emergency beacons, communications equipment and safety supplies. So although they may be responsible for the actual accomplishment, it is by no means a solo event. From the time Lillian crossed the border from New York into Ontario to the time she left Alaska to cross the Bering Strait, she had no transportation, guide, companion or any entourage at all. She had no contract to write a travelogue or a series of newspaper articles. And as far as we know, she didn’t write home—wherever home was for her.
To survive in the extreme circumstances in which she found herself requires certain personality traits. The editor of the Dawson News wrote admiringly:
Lillian Alling is so small and trim of stature that one is forced to wonder how a woman of such frail build could ever prove the conqueror of an overland course which leads through the tangled nooks and corners of a vast Northern wilderness. She has proved herself a human dynamo, a dominant driving mistress of her own destiny, a resolute woman with a will that has proved a way.1
But her unique characteristics were more than just this. She was a loner, thriving on solitude in the wilderness for extensive periods. But over the course of her journey she went from being so afraid of people she carried an iron bar for protection to trusting hundreds of strangers as she trekked through British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska. Because she learned to trust people, she survived through their help and her own strong character.
She was decisive, singled-minded, focussed and, some would say, obsessed. Of course, there’s a fine line between being admired for one’s stubbornness and being thought crazy. Lillian never wavered in her determination to go home via Siberia, and she couldn’t understand when people tried to stop her. She didn’t allow other people’s negative opinions to sway her. She just told them she must, she must get to Siberia. As a result, there were many people who met her and remembered her, even years later, because of her drive to make it home.
She was adaptable. She adapted when she was arrested and jailed in Oakalla. She adapted when she was turned away at the US border in Hyder, Alaska. She adapted to staying in Dawson City for a whole winter, got a job and met people. She taught herself to maintain her boat, and then she steered it all the way down the Yukon River to its mouth.
Lillian knew how to improvise. By necessity, much of her trip was improvised. Some people have written that she had a plan, but Lillian would have had access to comparatively few resources, aside from maps, and so left most of her itinerary to chance. She planned what she could and improvised when she was faced with unexpected or perilous situations in her travels.
During some phases of her journey, she would have been focussed entirely on survival. With no prior experience to guide her, she had to decide how to make it over the next mountain. How to cross a river without drowning. How, with limited English, to persuade someone to give her directions along a game trail. How to find food and water. How to stay warm and not die of exposure. How to overcome pain—such as that from bad shoes, sunburn, muscle or bone aches, severe bug bites, and intestinal discomfort from iffy water and food. We know these things about her because people remarked on them as she accomplished them. But what we don’t know are the times in the wilderness when she was alone for weeks at a time, where she may have fallen or encountered predators like wolves, bears or cougars or where she had no food.
She had remarkable endurance. In a three-year cross-continent trek, there would have been a lot of things to fear. Wild animals. Dying of exposure. Getting lost in the wilderness. Strange people. Crossing bridgeless rivers. Freezing to death. Drowning. Yet she kept going.
Three years is a long time for any journey and would have required much patience. Of course, the times that would have required the most patience would have been the winters she spent in Vancouver and Dawson. When she arrived in Dawson, she had been wearing the same clothes for months; she had just travelled down an unknown (to her) river alone, and she was walking into a strange town with the knowledge she had to stay there for months. It must have been so difficult to stay in one place when she was eager to get back on the road. But while she would have had to exercise patience and restraint during times when it was impossible to travel, she would have needed a great deal of patience when travelling alone, taking her time to make careful decisions, never blundering ahead without thinking.
These character traits, which to some would seem too dogged, too rigid, or just plain crazy, not only kept Lillian going but also kept her alive in circumstances that would have killed lesser people. I think Lillian herself always believed that she would make it to the shores of Siberia, yet she was no dreamer. She was practical enough to know when to accept help from others and allowed people to give her food and clothing. She carried enough food for survival, yet she didn’t overburden herself with luggage. She was not foolhardy or insane. She was prepared.
Lillian Alling’s endurance was formidable and her bravery remarkable. Her personality and story resonate with strength more than eighty years later and touch our hearts. Who cannot identify with the desire to reach home in the face of great hardship? And this endurance is the reason I believe that she made it across Bering Strait and onto mainland Siberia.
I hope she made it home.