Fairbanks, AK -June, 2004

 Fairbanks is the second largest city in Alaska with a population of just over 30,000, but is much smaller than Anchorage.  Still, it's the transportation hub of interior Alaska and a major supply point for people who live in, or visit, the great Alaskan wilderness.  A "must stop" for tourists, we spent a week there enjoying a variety of activities.

North Pole, AK is a small village that took its name as a way to attract tourists.  Almost everything in town is geared toward Christmas and Santa Claus.  When young children write to Santa at the North Pole, this is where the USPS delivers their letters.  The largest statue of Santa in the world is found here, along with reindeer and many other items associated with Christmas.

One of the more popular attractions in Fairbanks is a tour on the riverboat Discovery, a steam driven paddle wheel boat that can carry up to 900 passengers.  The tour up the Chena river includes several demonstrations of life in this remote region.  For example, the most common form of travel in the wild was demonstrated by a bush plane taking off and landing on a very small strip along the river.

 

The boat stopped and gave us the opportunity to "meet" Susan Butcher, the famed dog sledder who was the second woman to win the Iditarod and the first to win it four times.  The race is more than 1100 miles long across the most challenging course one could imagine.  She even drove her dog sled to the summit of Mount McKinley.  It was a thrill to hear her describe life as a "musher" and see her operation.  Unfortunately, Susan had leukemia and passed away a couple years later.

We saw a fish wheel in operation and an Athabascan woman demonstrated how to filet a salmon and smoke it for preservation.

 At a native village, we explored their typical housing and several young women showed off hand-made winter clothing.

Later, while touring the Fairbanks area by car, we were introduced to local wildlife, such as caribou and musk ox.

 

At Chena Hot Springs, we visited the very popular spa and saw the last stages of an ice auditorium, a traditional structure that must be replaced every winter.

We seized a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to visit a place called Coldfoot, north of the Arctic Circle.  The name is said to stem from many miners in search of gold who got that far north, but got "cold feet" and turned back.  The camp served to house workers building the Dalton Highway to the Prudhoe Bay oil field and the Alaska Pipeline.  Our flight over the mountains was very scenic, and our return to Fairbanks in a van included a stop at a wilderness trading post.  The family that runs the store has done so for more than thirty years and still have no electricity.