John Szubski (left) with Pen Air crew in Cold Bay / Credit: John Szubski

Unalaska is a common stopping point for adventurers sailing or flying around the North Pacific.  But last month, Unalaska was one of the final stops for a man on a  40-year journey to every corner of the United States: through backwater Louisiana, rural Idaho, and even to a former leper colony in Hawaii.  

In 1973, John Szubski began a trip to visit all 3,142 counties in the United States. His final two spots are Alaska, where there are no counties.  He instead counted boroughs and census areas as counties.

• Part 1: His journey began at age 30, in 1973. He had traveled the world as an officer in the Navy and had been to 49 states. He was soon to visit his 50th state, Alaska and was wondering what came next. When he stumbled  across a map of every county in America, he knew what he had to do.

• Part 2: Szubski was able to travel through his job as an architect and amassed thousands of frequent flier miles. Taking weekend flights across the county, Szubski would rent a car and travel deep into rural America. Szubski wanted to do it right, so he set a few rules to be able to say he truly visited each county.

• Part 3: In 40 years, he’s seen the transformation of the country landscape. What was once a population scattered in small towns with vibrant downtowns gradually shifted to a nation covered in enormous suburbs and big box stores.

• Part 4: While the interstate highway system and domestic flights make travel simpler, there are still places that are very hard to get to. When asked about the least accessible county he’s visited, Szubski says it’s the former Kalaupapa leper colony on Molokai island, Hawaii.

At 12:13 p.m. on September 23rd. Szubski touched down in Cold Bay and officially visited the Aleutians East Borough. That completes his list of 3,142 counties. Szubski does not have a website, but he is currently working on a memoir of his time in the Navy.