Category: Transportation history

Fortymile Roadhouse in 1998

Fortymile Roadhouse and the Taylor Highway, gateway to the historic Fortymile country

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...

The early Richardson Highway and the Gibson stage line

The Richardson Highway stretches 368 miles from Valdez on Prince William Sound to Fairbanks in the Tanana River Valley. In its earliest form — the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail — it was the dominant overland route...

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...

Talkeetna and the Alaska Commercial Company’s Susitna-Valdez Creek freighting gamble

  Old freighter’s cabin at Talkeetna in 2005 Gold was discovered at Valdez Creek (near the headwaters of the Susitna River) in 1903. The first pack-horse and winter sled routes that supplied the mining...

Denali Highway history and Whitey’s cabin at Maclaren River

Whitey’s cabin in 2004. When the Denali Highway opened in 1957 it was more than just a 135-mile scenic byway between Paxson and Cantwell.  It was the connecting road from Mt. McKinley National Park...

Northern Commercial Company helped city of Eagle survive

If you have an eye for detail the front door is a give-away. Otherwise, glancing at Eagle’s old Northern Commercial Company (NC Co.) store, shown in the drawing, you might be deceived into thinking...

Paxson — a tale of two roadhouses

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...

Old Slana Roadhouse survives as private residence

The old roadhouse at Slana may be unique among Interior Alaska roadhouses. Most roadhouses changed ownership numerous times. However, the Slana Roadhouse, built by Lawrence DeWitt in 1928, is still owned by the DeWitt...

Rika’s Roadhouse still important fixture along Richardson Highway

Rika’s Roadhouse in later winter 2011 Big Delta—so named because of its location at the confluence of the Delta and Tanana Rivers, and to differentiate it from Delta Telegraph Station on the nearby Little...