The nineteen-million-acre Alaskan National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) contains between three and eight billion barrels of crude oil. For the last fifty years conservationists and developers have fought bitterly over the land. Struggling to combat the big-money politics that threaten ANWR, the conservation efforts of one couple, Olaus and Mardy Murie, have made them legendary. Jonathan Waterman blends historical narrative with vivid tales of his journeys into the Arctic, creating tension between past and present, science and politics, reflection and investigation. Where Mountains Are Nameless explores how oil exploration has choked Alaska's pristine wilderness and also traces the lives of the Muries. This memorable portrait makes the stakes over ANWR vividly clear.