In August 2013, Frank, Sam (his older brother), and I went to Alaska. We drove Sam’s new Chevy to Prince Rupert, B.C., and boarded a ferry to Alaska. We had a room with three single beds, a desk, a closet, and a bathroom. What a wonderful way to cruise! We had a forest ranger on board with us to give lectures, and we stopped at various ports so that passengers could go on land to explore a bit if they wanted to. We never did get off the ferry because we didn’t want to risk not getting back before departure. Of course, when we reached Haines, AK, we had our car for touring.
We made lots of stops along the way, but Fairbanks and Anchorage, with Denali in between, were our main destinations. We loved Fairbanks, but Anchorage was just another big city to us. Besides, the only rain that we had was in Anchorage. So . . . we cut our stay there by a day or so and headed to Dawson City, a place where Sam had wanted to go from the outset . . . the place where Jack London lived for a year and wrote many of his stories. Sam had always been a fan of Jack London and was so excited about going to a town where London had history.
On the way to Dawson City, we stopped at a “town” that I want to tell you about . . . Chicken, AK. Oh, my goodness, what a treat! Chicken was once a mining town, but now, it’s just a tourist trap. You may think the name of the town a bit strange, but there’s a story behind it.
You see, the miners wanted to name the town after the local bird . . . the ptarmigan; however, no one could spell it, so they named it chicken, another bird in the area and one whose name they could spell.
The reason I used quotation marks around “town” is that I’m not sure that a place with a population of 7, according to a 2010 census, should be called a town. In 2000, the population was 17, so you can see that Chicken isn’t growing.
We loved the Goldpanner, the gift shop, and spent about an hour there. Then we headed for Dawson City. Hope you’re not disappointed that I didn’t write about the Yukos, but I was writing about the place between Fairbanks and the Yukon . . . Chicken, Alaska. What a treat! Here are some photos to prove that we were there!
3 comments:
What a fun place to visit. I wonder how much mail they get? Do you think that the postmaster would enjoy a letter?
I'll just bet he'd love it! Yes, much fun!!
Wow so cool place and looks hilly and ancient, was that track lifting a house mom, it looks like I hope you really enjoyed hahaha and the name of the town was also amazing at first I thought they named it chicken because they eat and like chicken so much. Even the population is socking why is it like that is it because of its location, mom am enjoying your blog account hope so any time I will open up mine too. Hahaha.
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