"When 9 year-old Tara Neilson, parents, and 4 young siblings moved out to an abandoned cannery near Wrangell in 1980, they were resettling a piece of Alaska history. Canneries were the engines that drove the coastal economy for a good century, and when refrigeration allowed canneries to move into town, many, essentially whole little villages in the wilderness, were abandoned overnight. Tara’s dad worked at a distant logging camp, boated home for weekends, Mom did what she could. But as Tara puts it, the kids turned feral. Lucky for us, young Tara kept a journal: of adventures, of new skills learned, some small: how to make Walkman batteries last longer. But some critical: how to safely drive a small boat full of siblings through rough waters, how to deal with bears on the trail home. But her book is also a reflection on place: the aura of the cannery that surrounded them, the children wondering about the immigrants from many countries who spent so much of their lives there. Neilson completes the circle by finding and sharing accounts of the lives of some of those workers. All in all Raised in Ruins is a rich look at unique Alaskan lives with a fascinating bit of history thrown in as well!"
