Category: Central Interior Alaska

Mining remnants still visible in Nome Creek Basin

Dredge buckets sinking into muskeg along Nome Creek The footprint left by mining on the Nome Creek Basin north of Fairbanks appears minimal at first glance. It’s obvious that the creek has been worked,...

Deadwood Cemetery (Central) and Circle Cemetery – 7-11-2014

Drove up to Circle on Friday looking for historic sites. Two of the places I stopped at were Deadwood Cemetery just outside Central, and the Pioneer Cemetery at Circle. Both contain graves dating back...

John Haines’ cabin on a sunny February morning

We drove down the Richardson Highway to Delta this past week. It was a sunny day and we stopped briefly to take pictures of John Haines’ cabin at Richardson. Photos were taken from the...

1940s Quick-Way Truck Shovel crane on Brockway Chassis near Ester

Here is a 1940s era Quick-Way truck-mounted crane sitting on a Brockway chassis. It is located along the Parks Highway near Ester. According to an article on the ConstructionEquipment.Com website, in 1922, a prototype truck-mounted...

Old Gilmore/McCarty stamp mill near Fairbanks may soon disappear

  Gilmore McCarty mill as it looked in the 1990s Fairbanks Creek, 20 miles northeast of town, was one of the most productive gold producing areas around Fairbanks. Genevieve Parker Metcalfe, who was the...

Railroad changed Nenana forever

  Nenana depot as it looked in 2012 In March 1914, Congress authorized the construction of a government railroad in the Territory of Alaska. The northern terminus of the railroad would be in Fairbanks,...

Immaculate Conception Church on a brilliantly sunny (but frigidly cold) February day

Today was a beautiful sunny day. Of course, the temperature when I woke up this morning was 30 degrees below zero–oh well. Here is a photo of Immaculate Conception Church from across the new...

A haunting end to life at Circle Hot Springs

For countless years before Westerners entered Interior Alaska, only Athabascan Indians used the hot springs located on the northeastern edge of the Tanana-Yukon Uplands, near where Birch Creek meandered out into the Yukon River...

Palace Hotel a rare remnant of Fairbanks early business district

Palace Hotel as it looked in November 2012 The old Palace Hotel, a two-story log structure now located at Pioneer Park, is a rare survivor of Fairbanks’ early business district. According to the City...