I was doing internet research and came across some roadhouse paintings done by Genevieve Marguerite (Marge) Gull. The image I included is her painting of the Timberline Roadhouse, which was a one-year-only roadhouse that...
Harry Karstens, cabin at Pioneer Park in the 1990s Henry Peter (Harry) Karstens, a.k.a. the Seventymile Kid, was a legendary Alaskan outdoorsman. He is remembered as co-leader of the first successful ascent of Denali...
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...
Went camping along the Delta River near Black Rapids this past weekend. This is a panorama looking downriver. (Click on the image for a large view.) Weather was blustery–wind blowing down the river as...
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 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...
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...
These two cabins at Sourdough Roadhouse date back to its early Valdez-Fairbanks Trail days Margaret Murie, in her book, Two in the Far North, said that all the best roadhouses had a “Ma” to...
John and Florence Sullivan (veterans of the Klondike, Nome and Fairbanks gold rushes) built a sod-roofed log roadhouse during the winter of 1905-06 midway along the 55-mile-long Donnelly-Washburn Cut-off. The cut-off was a Valdez-Fairbanks...
The Richardson Highway, like many roads in Alaska, has been rerouted many times. Its predecessor, the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail, experienced the same growing pains. Soon after the Valdez-Eagle Trail (the Trans-Alaska Military Road) was blazed...
