After the first two super busy days, we relaxed a bit. On Wednesday we drove part of the Steese Highway. It is just one of those “things” that Alaskans doesn’t use highway numbers; they refer to most highways by a name instead. The roads so have numbers, for example, the Steese Highway is legally Alaska 6, but no one uses the numbers. You just have to get used to it. The Steese goes north a bit then northeast of Fairbanks. We drove it strictly as a scenic drive, using our copy of the Milepost to identify interesting sites. We drove past the Dredge #8 we visited before, and it reminded me to post the picture of our $20 in gold! As I said before, we had it mounted in a magnet that will stay on the refrigerator in the motorhome.
Not long after the turnoff to the Dredge, we stopped at the state historical marker for Pedro Felix, the discoverer of the gold that made Fairbanks famous. While the name sounds Hispanic, he was actually Italian, and his real name was Felice Pedron, but he seems happy to have gone by the name Felix Pedro. His discovery was made just across the road from the marker, and the site is now owned by the Pioneers of Alaska historical/social group. You can even pan for gold there! He discovered a number of other claims in the area and ended up a very wealthy man.
The Milepost is the indispensable guide to Alaska, and it noted there were two osprey nests along the side of the road. There was a big one, empty when we came by, that supposedly had originally been an eagle’s nest, but the smaller one was active. Obviously the bird thought some home improvement was in order.
The scenery was lovely. The hills were gently rolling, even with the debris of placer mining all along every stream. There had been enough time that much of the debris was being reclaimed by forest. Lots of blueberries.
One thing about placer mining was that it took enormous amounts of water not for the hydraulic shoves and to operate the steam engines of the mills. The Davidson Ditch was one solution to this. For about half of the 90 mile journey it was a traditional canal/ditch, but it needed to transit elevations higher than its source. It used pipes as a siphon for the other half, also using them to transit hills. This is a remaining part of the ditch showing both an above ground pipe and where one end of the pipe goes into a hill. Interesting efforts for the first big pipeline construction in Alaska! Built in the 1920s, it operated until 1952. Parts were used in a hydroelectric plant from 1958-1967 when a flood closed the plant.
The scenery was lovely. The rain foreshadowed what we would get today.
As always in the wilder parts of the north, there are other engineers hard at work. I wish I had kept some sense of scale for this beaver dam. It was at least 5’ high! There are beaver ponds all over the areas we have driven both in Canada and Alaska.
We had a late breakfast at an old lodge along the road. The place was called the Chatanika Lodge, and I recommend it. Talkative folks, and family run. The roofs and some walls are covered with $1 bills. It is a “thing” to staple one to commemorate your visit.
The next day we visited Pioneer Park, an historic theme park run by the city of Fairbanks. Interesting place. It had lots of historic mining artifacts including one repurposed into a fountain.
Remember how I said it took a lot of water to mine? Without diesel engines, even the shovels were operated on steam. Lots of wood and lots of water.
After the mining history area, we went to the art museum. I fell in love with this wall quilt! The sign says it was Ree Nancanow and is a gift from the National Park Service. What artistry!
There is another part of Pioneer Park called “Frontier Town”. It is devoted to old structures originally in Fairbanks that have been moved to the park. A few are reconstructions, but most seemed to be the original buildings. Some have small museum displays inside, some are now offices or food establishments, while others are not open to the public. Here are a tiny fraction.
The Palace Hotel was an imposing structure with rooms. A bath could be had for 50 cents!
Kitty Hensley was a major player. She owned both a paddle wheeler and a mine. Look at that fancy two story place. I think the one next to it was a brothel. To put it mildly, they weren’t situated next to each other in their original locations!
There was also a transportation display. The Nanana is not in the best of shape, but you can still see how big these boats were. They were filled with cargo plus pushed barges with mining supplies up and down the river for years.
And of course there has to be something about the railroads!
More transportation examples were found in the parking lot. Pioneer Park allows RVs to spend a night (or few) in their parking lot, and there was quite a collection. Big fifth wheels, nice Class A and Class C rigs, a few trailers and vans. And then there were these folks who look like they are staying a while. There are grills out, chairs, tables, and at least one of the vehicles has a flat tire. At least they have a safe place to stay.
We went to Santa’s Workshop in the afternoon. Since our campground is in North Pole, Alaska, that is required! Can’t show anything there because there were, perhaps, some presents bought! Next door is the “Reindeer Flying Academy” with a nice herd of reindeer. Expensive to go in the pens, but the picture outside is free!
We are in Fairbanks through tonight, then we head to Denali. We are attending “The Famous Salmon Bake” tonight with the caravan. However previous attendees had said we should order the prime rib, so we will be doing that! We are also going to a show. Both are in the grounds of Pioneer Park. I will post about that next time.
