Wild Man Island

Writer Will Hobbs’s middle-grade novel Wild Man Island (2002) combines the survival and mystery genres to build an adventure set on a deserted island off the coast of Alaska. The novel uses its story of a boy forced to fend for his life after being marooned on a small island to impart to its reader facts about surviving in the wilderness, as well as information about the ancient Clovis people and their crossing of the land bridge to North America in prehistoric times.

Our protagonist is Andy Galloway, a young Colorado teenager whose archeologist father died a few years ago in a terrible accident on an island where he was doing fieldwork researching the mystery of the first Americans.

In order to find some closure for this terrible loss, the fourteen-year-old Andy decides to go on a kayaking trip in Southeast Alaska, near the place where his father had slipped and fallen over a cliff near a waterfall. However, when he realizes that the group is not planning to stop where his father had died, Andy breaks away from the other kayakers, paddling to Baranof Island to put a memorial on the cliff.



Andy then heads off to rejoin the group, but a sudden powerful storm pushes his kayak off course. Luckily he doesn’t shipwreck, but he still finds himself in significant danger when the wind pushes him onto the shore of Admiralty Island, a place that has been nicknamed the Fortress of the Bears because of its predator inhabitants. Andy makes it to shore without injuries, but he is soaking wet and freezing – and armed with nothing more useful than a credit card.

For the next few days, things go from bad to worse for the boy. Desperate for food, Andy makes the unwise decision to eat some raw reddish shellfish from the water. Almost immediately after, he suffers temporary paralysis, caused by a poison released by small organisms called dinoflagellates which kill fish by releasing saxitoxin – the telltale red color of the shellfish should have warned him to stay away.

Eventually, Andy recalls a few of the survival skills the trip leader had taught the group, struggling to find food that is safe to eat. Despite the trip leader’s warning that when lost, it’s best to stay in one place, Andy staggers inland, all the while trying to avoid bears. On his walk, Andy finds a gruesomely poached bear, whose carcass has been skinned and whose paws and head have been cut off by its hunters for trophies.



Soon he finds a canning factory, but his hopes of being rescued are dashed when it becomes clear that the cannery has long been abandoned. He thinks he sees a bearded, long-haired man wearing deer hide clothing and bark sandals, and carrying books, but the man disappears so quickly that Andy assumes he is hallucinating. Still, he finds evidence that the man does indeed exist: an arrowhead spear and a small knife carved from stone. The tools allow Andy to hunt for food, build himself a shelter, and make himself some bark footwear modeled on what he had seen the man wearing.

A friendly Newfoundland dog that has been running with a wolf pack approaches Andy and seems to want him to follow it. When he does, the dog shows him a salmon run where he can eat. Andy wonders whether the dog is connected to the mysterious man, whom he has started thinking of as “The Wild Man.” The dog next leads Andy to a cave that is filled with Stone Age tools. Almost as soon as they get there, Andy runs smack into The Wild Man, who introduces himself as David.

Not sure whether he can trust David, Andy runs further into the cave, finding a system of tunnels and open spaces. In one of these is an amazing discovery: an ancient burial site that is thousands of years older than any human remains previously found in the Americas. As he tries to make his way out of the caves, Andy encounters a terrifying bear. Just in time, David appears and saves Andy.



The next day, the group of kayakers finds Andy and David on the island and takes them back to civilization. On the way, David explains his life story: he is an archeologist who was convinced that people had existed in the Americas much earlier than previously realized. When the University didn’t seriously consider his theory, a disillusioned David faked his own death and came to the island to live off the land. Now, though, the shy recluse decides to give up his solitude in order to make sure Andy is safe.

The novel ends with a situation that works for everyone. In Alaska, the importance of the new discovery is duly documented, and David has the opportunity to become the island’s caretaker and the archeological site’s primary researcher. This way, he can continue both his scientific work and his newfound nature-based life.