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- Damn History | Issue 77 | April 2024
The trapper who became an accountant
History stories hide in unexpected places. A few years ago, I walked by one of those Little Free Libraries, which are small public repositories at which anyone can leave an unwanted book or pick one up. A title caught my attention: Six Months in the Wilderness: The Adventures of a Young Trapper in Northern Minnesota by Michael W. Raihala.
I looked at the author’s photo on the back cover, anticipating someone who looked like Kit Carson. Instead, I saw the portrait that heads this newsletter. This was the young trapper? This man spent six months in the wilderness?
As I learned from paging through this book, Mr. Raihala was a retired banker and accountant who made a discovery while going through his possessions in storage. On the back side of an old roll of wallpaper, he found a diary he had kept as a teenager. It described a trip he had taken into the woods as a 16-year-old in the company of a weathered trapper named Joe. Over a half year, they hunted, trapped, and camped in the wilderness. The experience gave the boy a fierce love of the outdoors, but poor health forced him to abandon his dreams of living in the wilderness. Instead, he went into desk work.
Only after bringing the book home did I notice that Mr. Raihala had signed my copy on the title page under the handwritten inscription, “To Gracie, Don and David, from Pops.” I’d love to find out how this book ended up discarded in a Little Library along my afternoon walk.
Here in Damn History you'll find, as usual, recommendations on good and popularly accessible historical reading, with tips on writing and links to my own work.
Follow me on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @Jack_ElHai
Contact me at [email protected]
Personal Notes
Here’s more about Time Capsule: The Silver Chain, a podcast based on an article I wrote for GQ about a 1970s swingers club in Bloomington, Minnesota. Six episodes are now out.
For a bountiful collection of my popular-history book, article, and audiobook recommendations, search X (formerly known as Twitter) for the hashtag #popularhistory.
Recent Popular History from All Over
You may find some of these articles behind a paywall if you’ve exceeded the publisher’s allowance of free views.
The shared memory of a centuries-old song brought together two women separated by the slave trade.
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The biggest art fraud in history was a Canadian caper.
Nazis plotted to bomb a Pennsylvania railroad.
A nuclear weapons lab helped crack a serial-killer case.
A few frames of a lost silent movie about Irish-American characters reveal much that’s unexpected.
In 1950, Eleanor Roosevelt asked for J. Robert Oppenheimer’s opinion of UFOs. Here’s what he said.
Read how Tommy the cat lost his $5,000 trust fund.
Resources
Here’s a great argument for reading old books by forgotten geniuses.
Don’t overlook these proven techniques of searching for obituaries in newspaper databases.
A movie based on the life of a real person is a tricky proposition.
Thinking of writing a memoir? Consider writing personal essays instead.
Learn about childhood amnesia, which nearly every adult experiences.
Is Walter Isaacson on a misguided journey to document the lives of geniuses?
Forget being the best at what you do, seeking your one true passion, and saving the world. Instead, follow Ikigai to attain happiness.
“I discover myself on the verge of a usual mistake.” – Walt Whitman
Housekeeping
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About me: I'm a journalist whose beat is history. I've contributed hundreds of articles to such publications as Smithsonian, The Atlantic, Wired, Scientific American, Discover, GQ, The Washington Post Magazine, Longreads.com, and many others. My books include The Lost Brothers: A Family’s Decades-Long Search, The Lobotomist: A Maverick Medical Genius and His Tragic Quest to Rid the World of Mental Illness, Non-Stop: A Turbulent History of Northwest Airlines, and The Nazi and the Psychiatrist: Hermann Goering, Dr. Douglas M. Kelley, and a Fatal Meeting of Minds at the End of WW2. I often give presentations to groups of writers, readers, and others.
Please feel free to get in touch.