I took the day off today while the majority of the crew including Terry went out to Fairbanks to visit the University, the botanical gardens and the museum. I wanted to give my knees a rest and see if I could figure out what's going on with my slide-out. (Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't and sometimes it slides in when it's supposed to and sometimes it doesn't. I looked and tested it but I'll be jiggered if I can figure out what's wrong.)
Anyway...I did get through all the pictures from Denali (see previous posts) and the short drive to North Pole via Parks Highway (Route 3), Mitchell Expressway (through Fairbanks) and then Richardson Highway (Route 2).
The scenery changed considerable once north of Healy. Gone were the majestic mountains produced by faulting and folding and tectonic forces. Instead, what hills and ridges there were were the result of glacial deposits. Eskers (deposits made on the bottoms of rivers flowing over and within the ice) formed long narrow ridges sometimes hundreds of feet high. One such esker started at Nenana and ran southeast. It was here that the Nenana River which we had paralleled on our travels north from Healy joined the Tanana River as it bent southeast to flow toward the Yukon River. Barges and ship traffic comes up the Yukon and Tanana as far as Nenana. The bridge here is the last to cross either the Tanana or the Yukon Rivers all the way to Norton Sound
We stopped in Nenana. Partly because there wasn't much else between Healy and Fairbanks and partly because Nenana had so much to see and learn about. And we wanted to place a bet in the Ice Classic.
The Visitor Information Booth is a cute little log cabin with a sod roof. And the woman inside really knows how to promote her little town!
Nenana Visitor Information CenterNenana hosts a contest each spring called the Ice Classic. Since so much of their economy depends upon the river, the passage or break up of the ice is an important event. For $2.50 you can enter your guess as to when that even twill occur. They want the Month, day, hour and minute that the tower that is stationed on the ice will be moved enough to pull a cord that will trip a switch that will stop a clock on shore. We entered Terry's birthday and time.
Ice Classic information and entry depository
The black & white marker for the Ice Classic and a backwoods pantryThe black and white stripped marker is what is placed on the ice of the Tanana River. A cord runs from the top to a clock on shore. When the tower topples enough to pull the cord, it stops the clock and a winner is chosen. Last year's jackpot was $279,030.
The wooden structure above is a backwoods pantry or cache. Your food and furs would go in the top portion and the ladder used to access it would be set elsewhere nearby. Grizzly bears can't climb. Wolverines usually don't climb. Only weasels and mice are to be worried about and if you make it tight enough, your goods should be safe enough for a season or two.
The Taku ChiefThe river traffic ends at Nenana and the railroad takes over. The board attached to this last wooden tug boat says:
TAKU CHIEF
The last commercial wooden tug boat to ply the Yukon and Tanana river basins. The TAKU began her career in 1938 in southeastern Alaska. After 7 years in service she was requisitioned by the CAA for use on the rivers of the interior. In 1956 she joined the fleet of the Yutana Barge Lines, and after a colorful history the sandbars and sweepers finally took their tool. On July 18, 1978 she was condemned. She rests in her last port, Nenana, a tribute to the heartbeat of Alaskan transportation.
LOA: 59’
BEAM: 18’
DRAFT: 30”
DEADWT TON: 42
Tribute to Native VeteransThis small, life sized statue stands behind the visitor's center with no plaque attached. The bridge over the Tanana, however is called the Alaska Native Veterans' Honor Bridge and was dedicated on August 5, 2000 to commemorate Alaskan natives who served in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Across from the visitors' center is a cluster of small shops built of logs. None is much more than a single room but they are all owned and operated by the same folks. It's a pleasing setting and offers a few amusing wooden caricatures:
We didn't spend much time in town proper, but there are several points of interest including a local transportation museum and a small museum at the Episcopal Missionary Church. And, in addition to the example of a fish wheel at the shops mentioned above, there are one or two operating on the river. I did find this enlightening:
I had always thought the fish wheel was a northwest invention.
Once out of town and across the bridge, we went up a slope to the ridge line of an esker. We then went back and forth from one side to the other getting expansive views of nearly nothing but flat land. At first, the Tanana River actually flowed on both sides of the ridge having made a bend at Nenana. To the northwest you've got the Minto Flats State Game Refuge and to the southeast you've got the Wainwright Military Reservation.
View out over Minto Flats
View out over Minto FlatsThe view to the southeast in tot he military reservation wasn't much different. Lots of flat surfaces. However, there were plumes of smoke rising from many acres right near the river.
Smoke rises from the Willow Creek Fire southeast of the Parks HighwayA sandwich board at the rest area that also has a monument honoring George Alexander Parks, Alaska's territorial governor from 1925 to 1933 and for whom the highway is named, informed those interested that the Willow Creek Fire had been burning since early June and had consumed some 6180 acres as of July 19th. Maps and photographs showed the extent of the fire and some of the efforts being made to contain it in the form of aerial water drops.
Recent fire information at the pull outThen we were in and through Fairbanks and into our campsite at the River View RV Park. Unhitch, wash up and off to dinner at the Elf's Den and a visit to Santa Land. (See Part 2 for more.)
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