Category: Central Interior Alaska

Fairbanks-Circle Trail gradually morphed into Steese Highway

Adams “Leaning Wheel” grader used on Steese Highway, now at Circle Distirct Museum in Central Ever since the 1892 discovery of gold along a Yukon River tributary called Birch Creek, prospectors have been tramping...

R. C. Wood, a neglected city father of Fairbanks

R. C. Wood’s house in the mid 1980s Richard Crowther “Dick” Wood, a pioneer Fairbanks banker and civic leader, was born in Winnemucca, Nevada in 1876. He spent much of his childhood in Tombstone,...

Historic Healy Hotel lives on at new location

Healy Hotel, now Princess Tours employee housing, in 2012 Most people driving the Parks Highway through Healy have no idea they can see a historic structure from the road. However, the two-story building just...

Fordson "Sno-Motor" used on Detroit Arctic Expedition, now at Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum

Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum’s Fordson snow tractor and the Detroit-Arctic Expedition

Fordson snow tractor outside the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum in Fairbanks The odd-looking contraption in the drawing is a Fordson “Snow Motor,” also called a snow tractor. It is basically a Fordson tractor (built...

Manley Roadhouse – Serving hospitality since 1903

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...

Colorado Creek Roadhouse used to be a welcome respite half way to Chena Hot Springs

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...

Autumn hike to Colorado Creek Roadhouse – Chena River State Recreation Area

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...

Circle’s Rasmussen House a freighting pioneer’s legacy

Nels Rasmussen house in Circle Circle City , with a pre-1900 population of about 800 people, saw its population drop to a few hundred after the turn of the century. The town was established...

Old farm tractors at Chena Hot Springs

We were up at Chena Hot Springs Resort yesterday and I took photos of the old equipment there. Here are three farm tractors on display. Ford Model T tractor conversion Ford Ferguson Allis Chalmers...

Ups and downs of Circle City, the “Paris of the North”

Old Circle City cabin in the spring of 2014 Circle is a small, predominantly Athabascan community at the end of the Steese Highway 160 miles northeast of Fairbanks. Located on the Yukon River’s south...