10 Extraordinary Years in Search of Wild Fibers

Can 10 incredible years of traveling to some of the most remote parts of the planet be summarized in a few short pages? Probably not, but it’s a worth a try.

Story by Linda N. Cortright

Ten years ago, before there was a magazine called Wild Fibers, before my passport collected so many stamps I had to upgrade it with 36 additional pages, and before I had teetered out of helicopters in New Zealand or swallowed handfuls of crispy worms in Zimbabwe, I was a goat farmer. I was living on 30 secluded acres near the coast of Maine along with my modest herd of cashmere goats, two dogs, and two cats: Bill and Elivs.

Wild Fibers cover from 2004.

At age 45, I’d had the remarkable good fortune of achieving my dream, or so it seemed. It may not have been a grand corner office with a petulant assistant taking irksome coffee breaks. And it may not have been a snappy sports car (I did own a dandy red truck), and it certainly wasn ’t an impressive stock portfolio. I had my farm, my animals, and most importantly, a broken heart.

Wild Fibers Cover from 2009.

Broken hearts are the sharp edges that teach us that life goes on in spite of unstoppable sadness. I was fairly certain that life would, eventually, continue. I just wasn’t convinced.

Wild Fibers cover from 2010.

When I am asked how I came to start Wild Fibers, I typically offer a rehearsed response about sitting in my spare bedroom with a second-hand computer, a bingo table I “borrowed” from my town office to serve as my desk, and a bootleg (oops!) copy of Quark software. I used up almost every penny of the less than $7000 in my savings account to publish the first issue.

The author (Linda N. Cortright) looking mildly disappointed by the removal of the helicopter door.

It wasn’t really as simple as that. Not only did the genesis of Wild Fibers take more than six days, and not only did a trio of men contribute in their own unique ways to its birth (may there never be a paternity suit to sort it all out), but I am still waiting to rest on the seventh.

Wild Fibers Cover from 2011.

One of the biggest challenges over the years has been deciding what is appropriate to share with my readers. For all the joys and wonder of international travel there are equal amounts of heartache. It has not been easy to abandon my Western heart, which has the luxury of often treating animals with more care than is afforded to millions of humans. But animal suffering, starvation, and careless death are an undeniable fact of this vast world we all must share.

Wild Fibers Cover from 2011.

On the magazine’s 10th anniversary I can’t think of a more opportune time to look back at the top 10 moments from the past 10 years, celebrating, reflecting on and sharing some snippets that have never made it into print.