Thanks for visiting our shop – a small family run business by Tyler and Ashley Selden, from the Discovery Channel docuseries The Last Alaskans. A show about the lives of some of the last families allowed to occupy the Arctic and Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuges. We live in self-sufficient isolation for half the year pursuing a land-based lifestyle while in the Refuge, hunting, fishing, trapping, hauling firewood and drinking water. We have two young children under the age of 3 that have spent more than half their life in the woods.  All the items we sell here are handcrafted and the all wild materials we use are harvested on our own Arctic Alaska trapline. We make and sell durable Alaskan gear like fur mittens, fur hats and wolf fur parka ruffs, all from fur that we trap. In an effort to use as much of the animals we harvest as possible, we also make and sell novelty Alaskan jewelry and crafts from the bones and claws of the same animals. We also sell a number of high-quality, winter-prime furs from Arctic wolves, wolverine, Lynx and fox. We take great pride in the quality of the fur we offer and all pelts are professionally tanned and well handled – feet and claws intact. We make an effort to price our goods fairly, but it’s important to note that a tremendous amount of work and time, dedication and persistence, not to mention considerable overhead expense go into making a remote, woods lifestyle work year after year, so we have to charge what it takes to cover the labor and cost of obtaining these wild materials.

Imagine the yearly cycle: after the frenetic, never-ending days of an Alaskan summer filled with wage work and gardening finally begin to fade, the first fall frost colors the leaves, a rush is made to get in the garden and preserve the bounty for winter use. An outfit for the winter must be bought, gathered and organized. Travel arrangements are made, an airplane charter or two, a river boat heavily loaded with dogs and supplies begins the long journey north into the country. Once on the trapline, the gear must be schlepped, the fish nets set and a moose killed. We watch as the ice forms on our river and the snow slowly begins to build. Traps are put in order, sled and harness and all manner of tackle organized and repaired. Winter takes hold, darkness descends and it is finally time to trap, the only way to earn an income in a wild place like this. The activity consumes our lives, getting in the trails, setting and checking the traps, extending the lines. Skinning and fleshing and drying the hides late into the night. A winter passes, the light begins to return to the land and thoughts turn to returning to civilization where the furs must be sold, tanned, made into things, the skulls and bones cleaned and bleached and made ready for sale. Seeds get poked into the dirt and begin to grow, work is hunted down, finally the sun refuses to set once again and we’ve come full circle.