The incredible true story of an entrepreneur turned conservationist--the founder of the iconic companies The North Face and Esprit who used his fortune to protect over 12-million acres of land from development and exploitation and battle to save the wild.
In 1991, Doug Tompkins left his comfortable life in San Francisco and flew 6,500 miles south to a shack in Patagonia. Instead of the Golden Gate Bridge, Tompkins now stared out the window at Volcano Michinmahuida, blanketed in snow and prowled by mountain lions. All of his possessions fit into a single duffel bag. Shielded by perfect nature, Tompkins regretted the corporate capitalism he had profited from for years. As founder of Esprit and The North Face, he had "made things nobody needed." Now, he declared, it was time to reverse the damage to the planet, and maybe even himself. In A Wild Idea, award-winning journalist and bestselling author Jonathan Franklin tells the incredible true story of Douglas Tompkins, a rebellious CEO who became one of the primary founders of our modern conservation and land protection movement. Flying his small plane, Tompkins explored the uninhabited natural land of Patagonia and gaped at the singular beauty: active volcanoes, gliding condors, forests never logged, rivers never dammed--all so undisturbed, so exquisitely designed.Could he protect this wild beauty? For the ensuing quarter century, that dream--that obsession--became his life. Only in death did it become his legacy.
WHY WOULD A SAN FRANCISCO ENTREPRENEUR SELL HIS COMPANY, FLY TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH, INVEST MILLIONS RESTORING PARADISE, THEN FIGHT LIKE HELL TO GIVE IT ALL AWAY? In 1991, Doug Tompkins left his luxury life in San Francisco and flew 6,500 miles south to a shack in Patagonia that his friends nicknamed Hobbit House. Mounted on wooden skids that allowed oxen to drag it through the cow fields, Hobbit House had for refrigerator a metal box chilled from the icy cold winds off the glacier. Rainwater dripped from a rooftop barrel into the rustic kitchen. Earlier tenants include a sheepherder with little more than his dogs and a rifle. Instead of the Golden Gate Bridge, Tompkins now stared at Volcano Michinmahuida, blanketed in snow and prowled by mountain lions the size of small tigers. Shielded by wilderness, waterfalls and tucked into a remote forest with three times the rainfall of Seattle, Tompkins plotted his counterattack against corporate capitalism. As founder of Esprit and The North Fa