Untamed: The Wildest Woman In America And The Fight For Cumberland Island

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Carol Ruckdeschel is the wildest woman in America. She eats road kill, wrestles alligators, rides horses bareback, and lives in a ramshackle cabin that she built herself in an island wilderness. She's had three husbands and many lovers, one of whom she shot and killed in self-defense. A combination of Henry David Thoreau and Jane Goodall, Carol is a self-taught scientist who has become a tireless defender of sea turtles on Cumberland Island, a national park off the coast of Georgia. Cumberland is the country's largest and most biologically diverse barrier island - over 40 square miles of pristine wilderness celebrated for its windswept dunes and feral horses. Steel magnate Thomas Carnegie owned much of Cumberland, and his widow Lucy made it a Gilded Age playground. But in recent years, Carnegie heirs and the National Park Service have clashed with Carol over the island's future. What happens when a dirt-poor naturalist with only a high school diploma tries to stop one of the wealthiest families in America? Untamed is the story of an American original standing her ground and fighting for what she believes in, no matter the cost.

Audible Audio Edition

Listening Length: 12 hours and 39 minutes

Program Type: Audiobook

Version: Unabridged

Publisher: Audible Studios

Audible.com Release Date: May 6, 2014

Language: English

ASIN: B00JS2O1L0

Best Sellers Rank: #22 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Endangered Species #76 in Books > Biographies & Memoirs > Professionals & Academics > Environmentalists & Naturalists #86 in Books > Audible Audiobooks > Nonfiction > Nature

THis is a fascinating story of a very unique woman and the many battles she faced, and she and others still face, to protect not only Cumberland island, but the endangered sea turtles. Carol's story is told very well. I found myself in the story. Like Carol, I was a loner child, who spent more time in the hills and the woods than with peers. Like her, I found out early on in life where I really belonged, and it was not with a bunch of suburban teens pretending to be hellions or rebels, but inwardly simply preparing to be conventional automatons like their parents. So, I can definitely empathize with Carol's immersion in nature and what flows from that.However, I was not as strong willed as Carol, and would have been too sensitive to take on as many different forces and institutions all arrayed against simply doing the right thing by the earth. I could have shot wild hogs on the beach, as she did, to stop these non-native creatures from gobbling down the eggs of endangered sea turtles. But I would have been appalled and distraught to realize that the National Park Service itself was more interested in building structures to draw in more and more tourists and money, than in protecting the land itself, and hence I don't know if I would have had the strength for the battles she waged against them. The attitudes of the Park Service to Carol Ruckdeschel, as quoted in the book, are disgusting and inexplicable. To say that they diminish one's confidence in the National Park Service is a great understatement.

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