Melvin Owens’ lifelong dream of living in Alaska begins to materialize in 1968 when, to the astonishment of neighbors and friends, he single-handedly constructs the 47-foot Red Dog in his Arkansas backyard. After launching the boat on the Arkansas River in 1971, he cruises the Arkansas and Mississippi Rivers to the Gulf of Mexico.

For the next year and a half, Melvin's efforts to get the Red Dog from Texas to Alaska turn into a mass of disappointments laced with mechanical problems, bribery and interstate fraud―an accumulation of events that threatens the relationship with his wife of more than thirty years. Eventually, in 1973, Melvin begins a solitary journey along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Central America, through the Panama Canal and into the Pacific Ocean to Alaska. Encountering tyrannical port authorities, ocean storms, illness and loneliness, Melvin fears a deadly end before reaching the place of his dreams, and returning to the woman he loves.

A true story of courage and endurance, South to Alaska chronicles Melvin's dangerous 10,000-mile journey through a watery world he knows little about, to get to a world he cannot forget.

It's a long way from a hillside in Arkansas to Squalicum Harbor.  But the 47-foot
Red Dog chugged into Bellingham Tuesday evening with its lone passenger, skipper Melvin Owens aboard.

                                    ---Sunday Herald , Bellingham, Washington, July 29, 1973.