Richardson Roadhouse in the 1960s Opening and operating a roadhouse in Interior Alaska was always a gamble. A poorly chosen location could hobble a roadhouse’s ability to attract travelers, new routes might bypass a...
Meier’s Lake Chapel in 2014 Charles Meier got his start in the roadhouse business working for Alvin Paxson. Meier, a mail carrier between Valdez and the Interior, hired on as cook when Paxson opened...
The Central Roadhouse as it looked in the mid 1980s In the summer of 1896, Josiah Spurr, Frank Schrader and Harold Goodrich floated the Yukon River, investigating mining areas for the U.S. Geological...
Talkeetna Roadhouse as it looked in the mid 1970s When I first visited Talkeetna in the early 1970s it was a sleepy little hamlet. The Talkeetna Spur Road had just been paved, but Talkeetna...
The 160-mile long Taylor Highway was constructed between 1947 and 1951 to connect the Alaska Highway with the Fortymile River region (often referred to as “Fortymile country”) and the city of Eagle on the...
Manley Roadhouse as it looked in 1994 John Karshner was prospecting for gold when he stumbled across a hot springs in the hills just north of a small Tanana River tributary in 1902. Karshner...
Barn at Colorado Creek Roadhouse in Fall 2012 Today, if you drive the 60 miles from Fairbanks to Chena Hot Springs, the trip only takes an hour or so. However, during the first few...
My grandson and I went looking for the old Colorado Creek Roadhouse this past weekend. It was one of three roadhouses built in the early 1900s along the old winter trail from Fairbanks to...
The National Register of Historic Places states that Gakona Lodge and its predecessor, Doyle’s Roadhouse, represent one of the oldest continuously operating roadhouse operations in Interior Alaska. It also is one of the most...
The remains of the second Paxson’s Roadhouse as it looked in early spring 2013 The tumbled-down building in the drawing, located about three miles south of Isabelle Pass along the Richardson Highway, is the...
