Ann Rosenquist lasted 19 days on 'Alone.' The Bayfield area organic farmer says it was a 'sacred' experience

Editor's note: This story has been updated to accurately reflect the location of North Wind Organic Farm. It is located west of Bayfield.

BAYFIELD – It's been about nine months since Ann Rosenquist spent 19 days trying to survive on her own, deep in the Canadian boreal forest near the Arctic Circle.

The ordeal was a physically grueling experience that required weeks of recovery well after her solo stint in the woods. But even now as Rosenquist, 56, looks back on it, she said being on The HISTORY Channel's survival reality television show "Alone" was an experience like no other, a "gift" she'll never completely leave behind.

The struggle pushed her to the physical brink. In the show's 10th season, the Bayfield organic farmer tapped out in the third episode, which aired June 22. She was the second of the 10 contestants to call for help.

"Alone" follows the experiences of 10 people who use their survival capabilities and innate perseverance to last alone in far-flung wilderness areas. The last person to "survive" the harsh conditions without tapping out by calling producers wins $500,000. Contestants rely on their skill and luck to find food and build their own shelters.

There are no camera crews accompanying the survivors; each is given multiple cameras and they record their own efforts. The show bills itself as the "ultimate test of human will."

For Rosenquist it certainly was. But now that she's home and fully recovered, she's been able to look back on the experience with a sense of gratitude and pride. And it's done nothing but bolster her devotion to the natural world.

Despite a physical, mental breakdown, Rosenquist would 'do it all over again'

She made the call to end her bid after she experienced a racing heart, dizziness and debilitating weakness. At the time, she told the cameras she thought she might have been having a heart attack.

She underwent medical tests after being brought out of the wilderness, and now Rosenquist believes she was debilitated from a lack of salt.

A condition called hyponatremia occurs when the concentration of sodium in blood is abnormally low. Sodium, according to Mayo Clinic, helps regulate the amount of water in and around cells. A lack of it can result in loss of energy and fatigue, muscle weakness and confusion, all symptoms that Rosenquist experienced while competing.

"I was actually a little addled in my brain," Rosenquist said. "I was operating at like 5%. I knew something was wrong. I didn't even consider that I was really dehydrated because I knew I was drinking water."

She said dizzying episodes plagued her for weeks after she returned home to Bayfield, where she was reunited with her longtime partner, Tom Galazen, and their vegetable- and fruit-growing farm, North Wind Organic Farm.

Hyponatremia can be a life-threatening condition, but Rosenquist said she wouldn't hesitate if she were given the chance to compete again.

"Oh yeah, for sure, I would do it all over again," Rosenquist said. "Just to be out there a little longer and show that I can (do it), you know? With salt, I think I would have done better."

Life on an off-the-grid organic farm prepped Ann Rosenquist for 'Alone'

Rosenquist and Galazen started watching "Alone" several years ago after a customer visited their farm and told them about it.

"It's really the only television show we watch," Galazen said.

They live on about 140 acres of land a few miles west of Bayfield. Most of the property is wooded. Galazen and Rosenquist only farm about three and a half acres, comprising patchwork garden plots and clusters of fruit trees. The entire operation is run off the grid. They use solar panels and a wind turbine to produce the electricity they need, stored in a bank of batteries.

The power also runs a few pieces of equipment they use, including a tractor that runs on an electric motor.

"We don't have too many bills," Rosenquist said.

"Yeah, we have to buy various sundries and personal items," Galazen said.

The electricity runs refrigerators and freezers they use to preserve their crops as well as charge cell phones and power the computer they use to watch "Alone" online. They use dead wood from the forest to heat their home and cook their food.

Most of the food they eat comes from the farm. They raise chickens, and sometimes they will butcher a road kill deer and trap squirrels, all of which provide meat. They live off the proceeds from their farm, selling their goods on site, at the Bayfield farmers market and through community-supported agriculture, or CSA, subscriptions.

Galazen grew up in the area. North Wind's land was once owned by his grandparents. He's owned the land since the 1980s. A staunch environmentalist with a strong self-reliant streak, he carved out a life he believes fits nicely into the natural system of the world.

And Rosenquist's perspective neatly meshes with his outlook.

Given their lifestyles, it isn't surprising that "Alone" would draw them in. Galazen was the first to apply for the show.

"Yeah, and he never got anywhere with it," Rosenquist said, laughing.

Rosenquist applied after her mother died in early 2022.

"I was ... cleaning up stuff with my dad," Rosenquist said, when the thought struck her. "It just felt like I hadn't really done anything in my life."

After her mom's death, Ann Rosenquist wanted an adventure

Rosenquist said getting chosen to do the show "was such a great gift."

"I mean, 43,000 people applied, and I was, somehow, in there," she said. "Maybe it was something I did in the past or the skills I have. But still, there was a little bit of luck in there, I think."

Actually, Rosenquist had done a lot with her life up to that point, but it was an unconventional journey.

When she was about 5 years old, her family moved from Minneapolis to northern Minnesota, where her parents ran a small resort. She immediately felt at home.

"My sister and I were pretty much running around in the woods the whole time," Rosenquist said.

Later, she tried stints at college, studying anthropology at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, then at the University of Minnesota. It wasn't for her.

"I couldn't figure out what I wanted to be," she said.

She has been married twice and has an adult daughter.

She spent time in North Carolina, where she grew shiitake mushrooms. She returned to northern Minnesota, this time in Grand Marais, where she worked several jobs, including growing vegetables, working at an art gallery, cleaning and driving a bus.

"They were all jobs where I could work and raise a child," Rosenquist said.

She and Galazen connected around 2010, through an online dating site designed to link up farmers.

"I saw him prior to that at an organic farming conference and thought, what a hoot. He is full of humor," Rosenquist said.

"Sometimes too full," Galazen said.

Related: Wisconsin farmer taps out of HISTORY Channel's 'Alone' after nearly three weeks, moose hunt

Related: A Bayfield area organic farmer is braving the deep wilderness on the survival TV show 'Alone'

She found the 'Alone' experience to be 'sacred'

It's ironic that the lack of salt probably led to Rosenquist's physical breakdown on "Alone."

Each contestant is allowed to bring 10 items with them into the wilderness to help them survive, and salt was originally part of Rosenquist's cache. But at the last minute she decided it wasn't necessary.

"I was given a list of plants that had salt, but none of them were located at that site," Rosenquist said. "I knew blood had it, but I only got that one grouse (she shot with a bow and arrow). But it wasn't enough."

Physical difficulties aside, Rosenquist said she loved the experience of being by herself in the wilderness.

"It was so pristine, it was so beautiful," she said. "Every time you went around a corner, it was like a whole new scene that was landscaped. (There were) rocks, pine trees and all that moss. It was really something."

She began to feel as if it were home, that she belonged there.

"I really did like it. I wasn't alone, though," she said. "I had that tree that was always there. The jay that came. The squirrel. There was an otter that came along and barked at me. ... It was my little world."

Rosenquist and Galazen live a quiet, rural life, and Rosenquist appreciates what it gives her. But that time in the wild, that was special.

"It was almost kind of a sacred in a way," she said. "It was just great."

Keith Uhlig is a regional features reporter for USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin based in Wausau. Contact him at 715-845-0651 or kuhlig@gannett.com. Follow him at @UhligK on Twitter and Instagram or on Facebook.

This article originally appeared on Green Bay Press-Gazette: Ann Rosenquist says time on HISTORY Channel's 'Alone' was 'sacred'