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Lou Marincovich, Paleontologist

About
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Myself collecting Plioene sea shells south of San Diego, California, in 1961.

“Uncle” George Kanakoff, my mentor and father figure, collecting Pliocene shells south of San Diego, California, 1961

On a summer job in the field around King City, California, 1968.

My main field areas in red. Pretty close to the North Pole!

The J.W. Nickle drilling tender and its three-legged jack-up platform in Cook Inlet, Alaska. 1967. The mudshack where I worked is the white building with a window partly showing on the platform.

On the widowmaker between the drilling tender J.W. Nickle and the platform. Fining privacy meant climbing to the top of the 142-foot derrick behind me. 1967

Lou, on right, with Gene Inman’s drill crew on J.W. Nickle. 1967.

Lou pulling himself up by the neck on a dare. Descending was the hard part. 1967

Enjoying the moment on an oil rig in Alaska while working as a mudlogger, 1967

A Godforsaken offshore oil platform in wintertime Alaska, 1968

Killing time in the mudshack with my banjo. 1967

Collecting mollusks from a leg of the G.L. Temple offshore platform

The photo I sent as a Christmas card to my boss in 1969 from Dahomey.

At the shaker screen where I collected cuttings samples

With Duster in front of a carved door in Cotonou, Dahomey, 1969

Texaco camp at Driftwood on the Utukok River, western North Slope, Alaska, 1974

Enjoying the Alaskan tundra with an eagle feather in my hat, 1974

1974 Texaco field team in Alaska. Left to right: Jim “Moley” Molnar, Mike Simmons, Lou “Dr. Clam” Marincovich, Alex “Little Leader” Feucht, and Don “Oltzie” Oltz, behind the nightly shit-burning barrel

Self-portrait in a helicopter near Cold Bay, Alaska, 1977.

Left to right: Don Oltz, pilot Hank, and Lou ten minutes before we went down in the Hughes 500 helicopter from 300 feet up. Our fuel dump is in the background. 1974

Driftwood, tents lighted during a storm, 1974

The failed right-side engine on our twin-engine plane, just before we went down. Northern Alaska, 1974.

A slab of sandstone with 10-million-year-old shells; tired at the end of a long day at Cape Tachilni, by Cold Bay, Alaska, 1977.

Caribou migration in 1988 at 3AM; note tent top on right.

Caribou migration at 3AM in August 1988.

Collecting shells in beds 28 million years old, near Barter Island, northern Alaska.

With Anton Oleinik (R) at ruined paleo-Eskimo dwelling, Canada, 2001.

Resupply plane arrives at our tent camp on Tugidak Island, Alaska.

Collecting fossil shells on Tigudak Island.

Musk oxen on Ellesmere Island, northern Canada, 2001.

Musk oxen in defensive formation on Ellesmere Island, Canada, 2001.

Lou in Dehavill and Beaver bush plane on way to Tugidak Island from Kodiak Island, Alaska.

60,000,000-year-old shells, Ocean Point, Alaska. From an early poster presentation at a geological meeting.

Riding over horrible mud-lump tussocks, Ellesmere Island, 2001.

Paleocene clams being excavated, Ellesmere Island, Canada, 1984.

Small Paleocene shells, Ellesmere Island, Canada, 1001.

Signaling a helicopter in 1975, before we had walkie-talkies in the field, Lituya Bay, Alaska.

Excavating Ice Age beds at Skull Cliff near Barrow, Alaska, 1983.

Ice Age mollusks from Tugidak Island, Gulf of Alaska.

Ice Age shells in sediment, Tugidak Island, Gulf of Alaska.

Twin Otter bush planes just landed on rough ground, Ellesmere Island, Canada, 2001.

The only exit from this overloaded Alaskan bush plane was a small window. 1974

Left to right: Alex Feucht, Lou Marincovich, Don Oltz and Jim Molnar resting on a North Slope ridge, 1974.

My first USGS field day, in front of La Perouse glacier near Lituya Bay,Alaska. 1975.

Research Vessel Don J. Miller II in Lituya Bay, Alaska, 1975

We made daily landing and takeoffs at our tiny ship’s helipad next to our helicopter’s fuel barrels. Lituya Bay, 1975.

Looking upstream along the Colville River at Ocean Point. The immediate foreground is the place where I had an out-of-body experience, 1977

Showing off by hanging over a 1,000’ dropoff during a windstorm at Sandy Ridge, 1978. At the time I didn’t know that the williwaw wind could suddenly stop.

Heading into the field through an Anchorage tourist shop, 1998.

Enjoying a hillside of lupines, Kodiak Island, 1978

Self-portrait in a 1982 during a 120-mile-an-hour hurricane near Bear Lake, with pack and shotgun case close at hand.

Being dropped off alone on a narrow ridge with my backpack and Remington shotgun near Bear Lake.

A wolf followed me one day, as I discovered when I backtracked

Clambering around the steep Sandy Ridge stratigraphic section, 1999

In a museum collection holding the specimen of the clam Astarte that was the key to unlocking Bering Strait’s age, 1997.

Standing with Sasha (left) in front of the Sandy Ridge stratigraphic section, 1998

An adult grizzly that ran in front of our landing chopper near Sandy Ridge

Lou and Sasha with outcrop fossils: With white mollusk specimens I just collected lying on a rocky shelf at Sandy Ridge, where we documented the earliest opening of Bering Strait, 1998.

Visiting a walrus colony at Cape Seniavin near Bear Lake, 1998

Watching a grizzly bear approach out tent camp at Ocean Point in northern Alaska, while holding a 12-gauge shotgun and wearing a .44 Magnum revolver in a shoulder holster.

Float plane landing on the Colville River at Ocean Point, northern Alaska.

Tent camp at Ocean Point, northern Alaska, 1978.

My last tent camp in the Arctic, at Carter Creek in 2005. The supply tent is fifty yards from the sleeping tents in case a grizzly comes by when we were asleep.

150,000 caribou migrating by our Carter Creek camp, northern Alaska, at 3 a.m. in 1988. The top of our white supply tent is visible at right

Ellesmere Island, Canada, at about 80 degrees North, pointing to the exact spot on the aerial photo where I am currently standing on the shore of Strathcona Fiord. Photo by Anton Oleinik.

Basking in the Midnight Sun in a photo taken—to the second—at midnight, Strathcona Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Canada, 1984.

Here I’m confronting the alpha male wolf that boldly came into our camp at Strathcona Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Canada.1984.

Gluing together a particularly important mollusk specimen while trying to stay warm on a windy, below-freezing day, Meighen Island, Arctic Canada, 1990

Striking a pose in the Valuvayam River, Siberia, 2003

It was worrisome to fly 150 miles in this shabby looking Russian helicopter, seen at Korf, Kamchatka, Siberia, 2003

Tent camp by Valuvayam River, Kamchatka, Siberia, 2003

Staying safe on Kodiak Island, Alaska, 2003. I’m on the right.