‘Alaska: The Last Frontier’: Tour the Kilcher Family’s Rustic Homestead From Discovery Channel Hit

Life in the remote Alaska town of Homer is stunning but rugged for the Kilcher family, as documented on the Discovery Channel hit Alaska: The Last Frontier since 2011. Living off the land can be brutal at times, but it also brings the family together to work as a team on the homestead. The photos they share on social media give a beautiful glimpse of their unique lifestyle.

Patriarch Atz Kilcher and his brother Otto have led their family members through farming, growing food, hunting and fishing during the summer months to prepare for the cold Alaskan winters. They’re helped by Atz’s wife Bonnie Dupree, his son, Atz Lee Kilcher, and wife Jane, Otto’s wife, Charlotte, his son, Eivin and his wife, Eve.

The most famous member of the Kilcher is Atz’s daughter, singer Jewel. She grew up on the 600-acre homestead but left when she was 16 to attend a music conservatory school in Michigan. Jewel later went on to become a folk-pop superstar in the 1990s. The “You Were Meant For Me” songstress finally appeared on Alaska: The Last Frontier in 2016 to show her son, Kase, whom she shares with ex-husband, pro rodeo cowboy Ty Murray, what her grueling but gorgeous life was like growing up on a remote Alaskan homestead.

“Well, I really was wanting to take my son up there, and I wanted to wait until he was old enough to remember. So, it had been at least six years since I’d last been home. It was beyond magical for me. I’m very, very proud of how I was raised,” she told Channel Guide magazine in November 2016.

“I think it gave me the type of values and groundedness and down-to-earthiness that has helped me stay true to my values as somebody who ended up being in the spotlight. I never was taught that fame or money make you happy. It’s what kind of human you are. That’s something I’ve always tried to hold true to,” she explained, adding, “Sharing it with my son and getting him to see the homestead and be around my dad, and learn things from my dad was incredibly heartwarming for me,” Jewel recalled.

“When I first got discovered, journalists would ask me how I was raised, and they just couldn’t comprehend it. They were like, ‘Was it a commune? Was it a ranch? Why didn’t you have plumbing?’ It was so difficult for people to understand, that I kind of quit talking about it. I’m really proud, though, that there’s a beautifully filmed show that I can be like, ‘That’s where I was raised, and that’s how I was raised.’ I’m so proud that there’s a family on television showing what it’s like to choose to work hard because the rewards are incredibly great. I’m just very proud of them.”

Scroll down for a photo tour of the Kilcher family homestead from Alaska: The Last Frontier.