by Tom Kizzia
First published 2013
Journalist Tom Kizzia investigates the true story behind Papa Pilgrim, a charismatic patriarch who arrived in the Alaska frontier town of McCarthy with his wife and fifteen children. The family presented themselves as devout Christians living a simple homesteading life, complete with traditional music and old-fashioned values. Papa Pilgrim quickly sparked conflict by bulldozing an unauthorized road through mountains to reach an abandoned copper mine where the family planned to settle. This act triggered a heated confrontation with the National Park Service and divided the small community. Kizzia reveals that Papa Pilgrim was actually the son of a wealthy Texas family with connections to the FBI, the Kennedy assassination, and Easy Rider movie stars. As the government battle intensified, disturbing questions emerged about the treatment of his children and whether they were devoted followers or trapped victims. The book chronicles how one manipulative individual ignited a broader clash between environmental protection and pioneer rights while holding both a town and his own family under his psychological control.
Genres: adventure, crime, non-fiction, biography-memoir, family-drama, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: psychological-control, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Alaska, McCarthy, Texas
Period: 20th-century, 21st-century
292 pages · Hardcover · Crown
Content warnings: abuse, child-abuse, emotional-abuse