Parallel Destinies is the bigger story of the Alaskan Interior's development. It focuses on the Alaska state park, Rika's Roadhouse. Featuring over one hundred archival photographs, the book cameos the Athabaskan and Yugoslavian cultures intersecting in the development of the great Tanana River valley between 1867-1969. The roadhouse's builder, John Hajdukovich, was the window through which the Interior's development may be understood.

  John was the law, a trader and the life support system to the Upper Tanana Native.  He was the creator of the Tetlin Reserve and the Interior's most competent big game guide.  Between 1904-1942, this Big Delta roadhouse was the hub of civilization between Fairbanks and the Canadian border.

  Fairbanks Daily News-Miner editors, Patricia Watts and Dermot Cole, valued the uncommon quality of the book, printed in Belgrade.  The graphics artist, Dragan Miskovic, is one of Belgrade's best and imported from Spain heavy high-gloss paper for the spectacular photographs.

  Author, Judy Ferguson, has built on the historical, special connection, the mystique between Alaska and the Slavic East. This book portraits the parallel destinies of the Balkans and Alaska, the Last Frontier.

  More on Parallel Destinies:

  In 1903, at the close of the Balkan Turkish Empire, John Hajdukovich crossed the sea from Montenegro to an untouched wilderness, Alaska. John became a trader and a father to the Upper Tanana Athabaskans, the U.S. Commissioner,the Interior's finest big game guide and the architect of the federal Tetlin Native Reserve. Happiest when he strode across the land, John was not like other men. In 1914, during Alaska's last gold rush, John built a roadhouse, at the confluence of the Delta and Tanana Rivers, which today is Rika's State Park. Through the window of John's life, the Slavs who shaped Alaska, the Natives and the Great Land's development may be seen, braided river channels, running life's course in parallel destinies. When, in 1942, the international, Alcan Highway was built, the leisurely winters of Alaska's traders and roadhouses evaporated like a chinook wind blowing through a forest. John, who began the UpperTanana's infrastructure, lived to see modern military forts replace where once only Lieutenant "Billy" Mitchell's 1901, telegraph trail had been.

  Parallel Destinies is a story of a Swedish woman, Rika Wallen, to whom John deeded the roadhouse for back wages. For fifty years, Rika was a stake in the ground for the roaming John. While John traded and prospected, Rika ran the hub of the Upper Tanana's cross-roads. Her establishment was "town" to the three hundred people who walked the trails to the Alaskan-Canadian border. John and Rika were the history of the Upper Tanana Valley.

  "Wonderful collection of historical photographs. Parallel Destinies' portrays an excellent, personal spectrum. Good inclusion of different personalities; a very vital documentation of real life. The characters involved demonstrate, and evoke history as it was. Destinies portraits Alaska's significant, immigrant past."
      Professor Tamara Lincoln, Arctic Bibliographer and Rare Book Curator, Alaska and Polar Regions, Elmer E. Rasmuson Library, University of Alaska Fairbanks

  "A good story of our emigrants, a product worthy of our war-torn country's still latent, excellence."
      Mihajlo Mihajlov, Author, Moscow Summer, Underground Notes, Russian Themes, Belgrade, Serbia-Montenegro

"A critical history for all Alaskan Interior, school children but especially those of the Upper Tanana!"
      Scott MacManus, Director of Special Programs, Alaska Gateway School District

  "An easy read of the places and pioneers I love, of their hardships in the Alaskan Interior."
      Jinx Whitaker, Owner, New Horizons Gallery, Fairbanks

  "Ferguson provides a good, local history, and an interesting look at two, local characters who had a long-lasting impact on our area."
      Debbie Carter, Books In Review, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner

  "Fantasticly rendered, archival photos!"
      Patricia Watts, Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, Editor Heartland Magazine

  "A must-read of the Upper Tanana Athabaskans and their fur traders."
      Dan Garvey, Manager, Barnes and Noble, Anchorage

  "It is amazing from so far away that a Montenegrin would hear the call of the North. Well-researched, portraying real life, as it was. Reminds me of my immigrant grandparents."
      Lise Schonewille, Book Buyer/Special Orders, Mac's Fireweed Books, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada

  "Parallel Destinies takes the reader back to a time when real-life, colorful characters shaped a foreboding landscape. Wonderful photographic reproductions enhance this series of charming, historical accounts from the roadhouse 'glory days,' along the Gold Rush Trail, at the crossroads of Alaska."
      Anna Plager, State of Alaska, Division of Parks, Fairbanks

  Bio of author:

  Judith Eskridge Ferguson was born in 1945 when the Alaskan wilderness first intersected with the "lower 48 states," when the international highway, the Alcan, was new.

  Judy, the granddaughter of pioneers and a lawyer's daughter, was reared in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She majored in Fine Arts at the University of Oklahoma and then, at the University of California at Los Angeles.

  In 1968, she moved to Big Delta, Alaska. There, she met Rika Wallen at her roadhouse the year before Rika died. On the Tanana's banks, Judy met Reb Ferguson, a hunting guide, trapper and forest, fire-fighter. They married and for the next twenty-two years, they raised three children in an isolated, wilderness life up the Tanana River.

  Lacking road access, Judy home-schooled the Ferguson children. In winter, the family traveled by dog sled and in the summer, by boat. Clint, Sarah and Ben Ferguson grew up hunting and trapping.

  In 1986, the family built a home on the Tanana, accessible by road, and boasting a view of Rika's Roadhouse.

  In 1996, Judy taught herself to use a computer. She began writing for the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner's Heartland magazine.

  During the past seven years, Judy, as a free-lance columnist, has published many stories in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner as well as in the Anchorage Daily News and Alaska magazine.

  Judy speaks French and some Serbian. She has traveled throughout western Europe and has been to Yugoslavia seven times. She has taught English to former U.S.S.R. refugees. Her writing focuses on Alaskana, history and Yugoslavia.

  In 1998, Judy began writing the history of the state park, Rika's Roadhouse. Parallel Destinies, An Alaskan Odyssey is Judy's first book and was printed in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in January 2002. Judy plans a forthcoming book on Yugoslavia and several more concerning Alaska.