Fairbanks, Alaska

It was a fairly easy drive from Tok to Fairbanks and we made good time, including a brief stop in Delta Junction to check out the farmers market, gift shop and to photograph the marker for the official end of the Alaska Highway.  We drove every single mile of it and have a certificate to prove it!  If additional proof is required, please check out the stone chips on the motorhome and car. 

 

Fairbanks is Alaska’s second largest city, home to approximately 35,ooo hardy souls.  It is situated on the Chena River and is known as the Golden Heart City.  The urban area looks a bit down-at-the-heels but that’s perhaps because harsh weather doesn’t allow for fresh paint to remain fresh very long.  And who wants to spend time painting when there’s only two months of decent weather all year.  The shortness of summer is compensated for by the length of the days, however.

Our first official order of  business was to restock the larder.  Fairbanks has several large grocery stores and the prices, while still higher than the Lower 48, were a vast improvement over Canada.  As much as we love Tillamook ice cream, we weren’t about to spend $8.99 for the 1 1/2 quart size. 

‘Way back in White Sulphur Springs we were advised by some fellow campers to purchase a coupon book called Alaska Tour Saver which offers “two-fers” on a variety of attractions all over the state, including hotel rooms, rail and air tours and admission fees to museums.  We knew the books were only available at Safeway stores and so off we went to purchase one.  All three stores were out of stock so it wasn’t until our third day in town that they became available.  And we glommed one as quickly as we could.

Russ and Rochelle finally caught up with us.  They came rolling in amidst a cloud of dust Monday evening and by Tuesday they were all shined up and ready to see the sights.  They bragged on how much wildlife they’ve seen along the way, including grizzly mamas with cubs.  We’re waiting to see photographic proof of this claim.

 

Our first opportunity to use the coupon book was for admission to the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska campus high on a hill overlooking the city.  Not much of the city was visible; the trees pretty much conceal its existence and heavy clouds obscured the rest.  The museum is a bright white modern structure which houses everything from wooly mammoth bones to contemporary arts and crafts.  The carvings in walrus ivory were especially fascinating; imagine an two-inch-long carving of a salmon in perfect detail.

One of Fairbanks’ biggest attractions is a place called Pioneer Park.  It’s free, for the most part, and seems to be a great favorite with young families.  There are picnic and play areas, miniature golf and plenty of little shops offering souvenirs and food.  We took the train which encircles the park, poked around in the museum (which could use some serious work to pull the collection into some sort of order) and checked out most of the shops.  The shops are housed in log or wooden cabins which were moved to Pioneer Park from various locations in and around Fairbanks.  They’re are all of historical significance and we couldn’t help but notice that the most elegant building was once owned by Fairbank’s premier madam.  After a hard day of panning for gold, the miners surely needed to relax and enjoy themselves in very posh surroundings. 

 

The weather forecast for the entire week hasn’t been encouraging but we decided to bite the bullet and sign on for a cruise on the Chena River aboard the paddle wheeler, Discovery III.  We were lucky – the clouds didn’t move in until we were well into the trip and it never did rain.  The tour was established by the Binkley family in 1950 and third and fourth generation Binkleys are still running the operation.  And very smoothly, I might add.  A grand-daughter of the founders was our pilot for the day.

A 3 1/2 hour cruise along a river could be fairly dull under most circumstances but there was plenty of entertainment provided.  First we got to watch a bush pilot take off and land on the river as the narrator informed us that one out of every 60 Alaskans is a licensed pilot.  Many of the homes along the banks  had float planes tied up next to their boats or parked next to their cars.  (And the Fairbanks International Airport has created a sizeable pond so that pontoon planes can take off and land there.)

Next we came to the home and kennel of the late Iditarod champion, Susan Butcher.   From the deck of the boat we were able to watch a dog team being hitched up to an ATV (a lack of snow prevents using a sled this time of year) and hauling it at a rapid pace around the practice track.  It was later explained by Susan’s daughter that the dogs used are “Alaskan huskies” which are leaner and faster than the AKC-recognized Siberian huskies.  And not nearly as pretty.  Apparently Alaskan huskies are somewhat smarter, too, because they can be taught the verbal commands of “gee” and “haw” and I’m not sure that’s true of Siberians.   Susan’s daughters, in addition to their shtick on behalf of the riverboat cruise, are also involved in dogsled racing.

Before reaching the Tanana River, we pulled up along side a fish camp where a young Native woman showed us how to filet and dry a salmon, not a skill we’ll be using anytime soon but interesting nonetheless.  When we reached the confluence of the Chena and Tanana we could immediately see the difference between the two, the Tanana being glacier-fed and blue-grey in color (more aquamarine on sunny days) whereas the Chena was a medium brown (we can only hope its color comes from tannin and not pollution).  The Tanana is also very shallow in most places and so the captain had to do a U-turn and head back up the Chena.

On the return trip we stopped at the fish camp which is a re-construction created by the Binkleys to add some Native culture to the cruise.  As we got off the boat we were split up into three groups and led off to hear brief lectures on various topics, including how the Athabascan and Eskimo tribes hunt, fish and survive in this inhospitable climate.  Here’s one of the young docents modeling a parka made from muskrat skins.  The hood is wolverine (which is so oily it doesn’t freeze) on the inside and wolf fur on the outside.  These parkas are wearable works of art.

It’s hard to imagine what winter must be like in this neck of the woods.  The narrator aboard ship said that the Chena River will freeze over by Halloween and not thaw again until sometime in April.  During the winter, the river is used as just another highway to get from one place to another and temperatures routinely are in the “minus forty degrees” range. 

 

Just on a whim we decided to visit the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum, mostly because we had a two-fer coupon and it was an over-cast afternoon.  And we were so happy that we did!  The collection is housed in a plain-brown-wrapper sort of building but, once inside, we found ourselves dazzled with the gleaming autos, costumed mannequins and poster-sized photos of early Alaska.  It was pointed out early on that the collection includes four vehicles which are the only ones of their ilk remaining in the world.  The signage was particularly well done; not only did it contain the specs and original selling price of each vehicle but reported some interesting little tidbit about each auto which made it unique. 

The examples of period clothing were every bit as ship-shape as the cars, many of the nicest examples behind glass.  My favorite was a beaded flapper dress with an Erte-style design, just the right thing to wear for a night on the town in your Dusenburg.

We have no idea who owns this magnificent collection but the signage by each vehicle ended with “adopted by” and a name. Once again we’ve been made to realize that the best attractions are come upon unexpectedly.  We’ve been to several antique auto museums across the country and this has to rank as one of the best.