FINDING ALASKA
self-guided historic, cultural and Natural history tours
THE alaska log cabin TRAIL
CABINS ARE A SYMBOL OF ALASKA, AND THE FRONTIER
The humble log cabin is a symbol of Alaska. It's made of the material at hand: trees. Many Native cultures built similar, half-underground precursors to the log cabin, wherever trees were available, using slabs of spruce bark as shingles. Later, when the homesteaders arrived, often from northern climes, like the Midwest and Scandinavia, the newcomers brought along European traditions, and adapted log cabin skills they already knew. Today, Alaskans throughout the state still value the log cabin as a home.
Photo, left: Inside a Talkeetna cabin.
The humble log cabin is a symbol of Alaska. It's made of the material at hand: trees. Many Native cultures built similar, half-underground precursors to the log cabin, wherever trees were available, using slabs of spruce bark as shingles. Later, when the homesteaders arrived, often from northern climes, like the Midwest and Scandinavia, the newcomers brought along European traditions, and adapted log cabin skills they already knew. Today, Alaskans throughout the state still value the log cabin as a home.
Photo, left: Inside a Talkeetna cabin.
INSIGHT ON FINDING ALASKA: Traditional cabin-style building on display at the Alaska Native Heritage Center in Anchorage. This one is made of timber. Natural materials, such as sod, wild animal hides, spruce trees and even snow (as in the well-known Alaska igloo) were commonly used to build homes in pre-contact days.
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FINDING ALASKA's log cabin TRAILSLIDES: Historic cabin in Talkeetna; Copper Center log cabin barn from the Gold Rush; Inside cabin display at Talkeetna museum; Old Copper Valley trapper's cabin near the Gulkana River; Christmas cabin in Copper River Country.
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Cabins around Alaska
anchorage log cabin tour
THE BOTTOM LINE:
Log cabins are scattered throughout Anchorage, near offices, hotels and skyscrapers. They're left over from the town's recent past, and surrounded by modern buildings. They're used as homes. |
> In 1915, this log cabin town had its start by the railroad tracks.
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TALKEETNA LOG CABIN tour
DID YOU KNOW? Talkeetna is full of log cabins. Some are rustic. Others are meticulously built by master craftsmen. BOTTOM LINE: You can go to Talkeetna for a day. Or stay for a week. |
TALKEETNA'S ONLY AROUND 100 MILES NORTH OF ANCHORAGE
An outfitting and gold mining town, this historic little log cabin village is located on three rivers -- the Talkeetna, the Susitna and the Chulitna. It was an isolated railroad town for quite a while, and a place where river scows and Alaska Railroad trains were a main means of transportation, along with small bush planes. Then the Talkeetna Spur Road was built, allowing access by car. The lengthy period of time off the grid led to real self-sufficiency, and a boatload of homemade log cabins that were built by hardy Talkeetna people who had few resources, but lots of energy. Many Talkeetna residents have built log cabins to live in, and they are still here, in their original locations. They're very easy to view as you walk the short streets around Talkeetna. Helpful signs and placards have been placed near Talkeetna's many historic buildings by the ambitious Talkeetna Historical Society. You can also go into Talkeetna's red schoolhouse museum to learn more about the town's cabins and history. > Talkeetna: WE CAN STILL SEE LOG CABINS HERE.
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EAGLE LOG CABIN tour
DID YOU KNOW?
This is what a "gold creek" looks like. Not much. Which shows why it was so hard for Gold Rush miners to know what they were doing. Unlike some other parts of Alaska, people actually still find sizable gold nuggets here in these icy shallow waters of Crow Creek. BOTTOM LINE: Stuck in Anchorage with only a day left? Go see the gold mining operation at Crow Creek. |
EAGLE IS A TOWN THAT HAS AN UNBROKEN TIE TO THE KLONDIKE
The Gold Rush town of Eagle, on the Yukon River near the Canada border, is one of Alaska's most historic places. It's hard to get to by car. Its primary means of access has always been the wide and mighty Yukon River (Eagle is less than 10 miles downriver from the Canadian town of Dawson City.) Nowadays, you get there on a long and winding dirt road, the Taylor Highway. It's worth the 173 mile drive from the Alcan Highway, near Tok. Just about everybody in Eagle knows the town history, and many have actually taken an historical public-speaking course, so they can be called upon at a moment's notice to take interested travelers on a tour of the cabins and government-built Gold Rush-era buildings that are still standing all over the place. Eagle is remarkable: highly authentic, not commercial, isolated, truly authentic, and very modest. This is a real town. With real people, a real history, and very old, very real log cabins. > totally authentic yukon river alaska town. |
FAIRBANKS gold rush tour
DID YOU KNOW?
Back in the days of the Gold Rush, people were fascinated with the "Klondike," which they extended to mean not just the Yukon in Canada, but also Alaska. It was the day of printed advertising, and heavy promotions. The Fairbanks Community Museum has collected supply lists and cough drop ads that show the impact of the Gold Rush on the popular culture. BOTTOM LINE: It's impossible not to feel the lure of gold when you're in Fairbanks. There are numerous museums, dredges, and gold trinkets all over Alaska's second largest city. |
"DAWSON CITY" WEST
It's difficult to ignore Fairbanks' ties to gold. From its nickname, the "Golden Heart City," to the gold and jewelry stores all over town, this is a place where gold is plentiful and important. Fairbanks is a Gold Rush success story. It had its start by accident, in 1901, on the Chena River, when a heavily-laden steamboat stalled out at that point and dumped its occupant with all his goods on the shore. He started a trading post. Right then, gold was found in a small nearby stream. And gold has been found in and around Fairbanks ever since. Even when digging postholes in the ground for house foundations. Gold dredges -- large, dinosaur-like bucket-powered dirt-movers -- crawled the hills and valleys near Fairbanks, digging up gold and dirt, and separating one from the other. There is so much gold near Fairbanks that there was a large open mine right beside the Parks Highway, in Ester, within view of the University of Alaska not that many years ago. Photos: Saints and sinners came with the Fairbanks Gold Rush, as shown by the two historic buildings, below, at Pioneer Park's "Gold Rush Town." > Gold history is on display in many of fairbanks' museums. |