Celia Hunter flew a war-surplus plane to Alaska in 1947 and built a wilderness life near Denali

Celia Hunter flew a war-surplus plane to Alaska in 1947 and built a wilderness life near Denali Celia Hunter spent the final evening of her life writing urgent letters to US politicians, asking them to oppose oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It brought an end to a 54-year campaign to protect Alaska's wild landscapes. According to historical records documented by the Alaska Conservation Foundation, Hunter died in her sleep on 1 December 2001 at the age of 82. Her death marked the end of an environmental career that began when she flew surplus military aircraft north to Fairbanks in the winter of 1946. Hunter co-founded the Alaska Conservation Society in 1960 and later helped establish the Alaska Conservation Foundation in 1980. Over more than five decades, her work helped protect more than 100 million acres of public land across Alaska.Military service and the northern flightBorn in Arlington, Washington, in 1919 and raised in a Quaker family, Hunter learned to fly in 1940. During the Second World War, she joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP), flying military aircraft from factories to supply bases across the continental United States. Federal rules di...