First stop was the
Delta Junction, AK, visitor center. Delta
Junction is the official end of the AlCan Highway. So now we can officially say we have driven
the entire length of the AlCan, & took our picture by the official milepost
to prove itJ
Next stop on the
drive was the Santa Claus House in North Pole, AK. The town changed their town to North Pole in
the hope that manufacturers would move their operations there; so they could
say toys made at North Pole. No industry
moved to North Pole, but they now make money off their Post Office & the
Santa Claus House. To get to the Santa
Claus House took navigating the RV & Toad thru three traffic circles, immediately
adjacent to each other; not easy! After
discovering that Santa was on lunch break at the store, we then navigated back
thru the traffic circles & the candy cane street lights to get back on the
highway. Because of the smoke from the
forest fires we are unable to see the Alaskan Range or the White Mountains which
supposedly border the highway during our entire drive.
Wednesday morning we
headed into Fairbanks to the Morris Thompson Cultural Center. This is an excellent facility that houses
representatives from the Fairbanks Visitor Center; Alaska Public Lands
Information Center; Gates of the Arctic National Park; Yukon-Charley Rivers
National Preserve; & the Tanana Chiefs Conference (supporting the
Athabascan culture & language). The
Cultural Center has excellent educational displays & various films shown in
the auditorium. As their website says:
“Since 1998 three separate organizations in Interior Alaska
struggled with inadequate space that made it difficult
to meet the needs of those they served. The Fairbanks Convention &
Visitors Bureau (FCVB) and the Alaska Public Lands Information
Center (APLIC) talked of sharing a new facility that would inspire residents
and visitors to get out and explore Interior and Arctic Alaska. At the same
time, Tanana Chiefs
Conference (TCC) dreamed of having a cultural center to preserve
Athabascan languages, carry-on traditional
knowledge through Elder teachings, and instill confidence and pride in Alaska
Native youth. It was Alaska’s Congressional delegation, led by Senator Ted
Stevens, who suggested these three entities work together to plan and build a
joint facility. To some, it was an unlikely partnership. But leaders from each
partner agency rolled up their sleeves and immersed themselves in the business
of building, planning and raising funds for construction. Now that we’ve
opened, facility operation and maintenance costs are shared. The vision of
working together remains strong.”
Definitely worth a
few hours of your time, if in the area!
Next stop was Pioneer
Park. As their website states:
“Pioneer Park was built in 1967 as a
celebration of the 100th year anniversary of Alaska’s purchase from Russia. The
Park opened on May 27, 1967 for the Alaska ‘67 Centennial Exposition. At that
time, the park was known as Alaska 67 or A 67 for short. Just a few months
after the park opened, its name was changed to Alaskaland. In 2001, the park
was renamed Pioneer Park. The change was to reflect the historical nature of
the park, because Alaskaland sounded too much like an amusement park. The
change was met with resistance, and many locals still refer to the park as
Alaskaland—with a staunch group petitioning to change the name back. In its
early days, Pioneer Park housed a zoo, and a midway with amusement rides in an
area called Bonanzaland.”
Sadly, to us it
looks as if the entire establishment is not doing well financially; hopefully
it was just a slow day. The hi-lite for
Dan was another steam powered paddle wheeler on display – the NENANA. The NENANA served 22 villages of less than
3000 people in the 1500 mile round trip.
The NENANA was not in as a good a shape as the KLONDIKE II in
Whitehorse, YT.
Last stop of the day
was the Tanana Valley Farmers Market.
Quoting from their website:
“The Tanana Valley Farmers
Market showcases a wide variety of Alaska Grown produce and plants and Made in
Alaska and Silver Hand arts and crafts - all symbols of excellence. It is the
oldest established farmers market in Alaska and the only one located in its own
permanent building.”
Then it was back to
RV to check & get Gumbo. We then
took Gumbo on a walk about downtown & the riverfront. We noticed that smoke from all the forest fires
has some people wearing face masks! Back
to the RV park & dinner at Chena’s Alaskan Grill - Corrie went with
peppercorn scallops wrapped in bacon, & Dan went with seafood chowder –
excellent!
Trivia – what is a
borough in Alaska?
Thursday morning we
started our day at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Museum of the North - excellent!
“The
University of Alaska Museum of the North is a thriving visitor attraction, a
vital component of the University of Alaska Fairbanks and the only research and
teaching museum in Alaska. The museum’s research collections – 1.4 million
artifacts and specimens – represent millions of years of biological diversity
and thousands of years of cultural traditions in the North. The collections are
organized into 10 disciplines (archaeology, birds, documentary film, earth
sciences, ethnology/history, fine arts, fishes/marine invertebrates, insects,
mammals, and plants) and serve as a valuable resource for research on climate
change, genetics, contaminants and other issues facing Alaska and the
circumpolar North. The museum is also the premier repository for artifacts and
specimens collected on public lands in Alaska and a leader in northern natural
and cultural history research.”
This is an excellent museum & definitely worth the
price of admission. It started with a
special art exhibit called “Vogel 50 x 50”.
The Vogels were two postal employees in New York City, that amassed a
phenomenal modern art collection on their modest salaries. They never sold any, donating all of it to
museums before they died. There is also
an extensive artifact collection that traces Alaska from prehistoric times to
present day. Did you know Alaska hosted
a half-million military personnel during WWII?
One surprising thing (& sad) we learned, was that
Aleut natives were forcibly removed from their villages in the Aleutians &
certain coastal areas, & spent WWII in “camps” in southeast Alaska. When they returned to their villages they
found them trashed/looted by Army & US gov’t personnel. In some cases the village was deliberately
burned by the Army, so Japanese invaders could not use it (if they ever
invaded, which didn’t happen)! The
Aleuts were only compensated when Japanese Americans who been imprisoned during
WWII, voluntarily reached out to the Aleuts & included them in their
lawsuit against the USA!
Next we went to the
University’s Large Animal Research Station which has small herds of caribou,
reindeer & musk ox.
“The Large Animal Research Station, or LARS, was created
in 1979 with a major grant from the National Science Foundation Office of Polar
Programs. The intent was to establish a colony of muskoxen that would be
available for nutritional, physiological and behavioral research, and to
provide a location close to the university where research could take place on
large, wild ungulates in captivity. In April 1980, 16 muskoxen captured on
Nunivak Island were taken to the station after a one-year quarantine. Reindeer,
moose and caribou colonies were established within three years, though the
moose were subsequently moved to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game Moose
Research Center in Soldotna, Alaska.”
We found the presentation very
interesting. It was also refreshing to
see animals who although not wild, not being treated as trained show animals,
and/or letting the “tourists” hand feed them.
Trivia – what is the
only difference between reindeer & caribou?
We then returned to
RV; but Dan had one more thing on his sightseeing list? So he took off to see the Trans Alaska
Pipeline up & close & personnel, before calling it a day. In 1974 the cost to build the pipeline was
$800 million, final cost was $8 billion.
All industry money, no asking for tax breaks from state; not like
industry does today when they build a new plant.
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