BACK TO WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
FIELD
A SPORTING COUPLE SAVORS AN ICE FISHING REUNION IN ARCTIC ALASKA BY SCOTT HAUGEN
O
n a March day my wife Tiffany and I were sitting on a frozen bay just north of Kotzebue – the first time in 21 years since we’d been together in Alaska’s Arctic. “It’s so peaceful out here,” Tiffany whispered; she didn’t want to break the
silence of the Arctic air. The evening was calm and the skies clear. Temperatures hovered in the midteens, and we’d fished for four hours without a bite. Few words were exchanged, but our minds were racing. You see: Tiffany and I began our
married life in Alaska’s Arctic in August 1990 in the small village of Point Lay. We were two of only four schoolteachers at the time – she taught third through eighth grade, every subject – and I did the same for the high school grades. After three years in Point Lay, we
Authors Scott and Tiffany Haugen with a pair of prized sheefish, marking one of their most memorable moments in Alaska over the past 30 years. They married in 1990 and taught in the tiny outpost of Point Lay, and have often returned to the Last Frontier. (SCOTT HAUGEN) aksportingjournal.com | NOVEMBER 2020
ALASKA SPORTING JOURNAL
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