FAIRBANKS

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August 1 – 6, 2011 FAIRBANKS
It felt good to be able to park the RV for several nights and not have to hook up each morning and move on!! Our time here in Fairbanks took in many of the special places to visit in the area so we will simply highlight the places we visited and let the pictures do the rest.
North Pole, AK
North Pole is known as the home of Santa Claus and his workshop. In December many letters arrive at the post office addressed to Santa. School children and senior citizens all take part in answering these letters. Here we enjoyed dinner together at the Elf’s Inn and then went across the road to visit the Santa Claus House and Santa’s reindeer. The North Pole Visitors Information Center was a very interesting old log cabin that looked as if it were built 100 years ago, complete with a grass sod roof.
University of Alaska, Fairbanks and Museum of the North.

The UAF campus is set on a hill overlooking the city of Fairbanks. We visited the experimental farm where they develop crops that can be grown in the short growing season in Alaska, the Botanical Gardens where plants grow to very large proportions, and the Museum of the North. This museum (to distinguish it from the hundreds of other museums we seem to have visited) was very well done and very informative. It included the usual displays of stuffed Alaskan animals, but also presented some of the interesting historical development of the state of Alaska. Of interest to Dwain was the display of the treatment of the native Aleut people during WWII, which was much the same as the treatment of loyal Americans who happened to be of Japanese ancestry. Lorraine was particularly interested in the intricate beadwork designs on the native clothing.
Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitor Center
This center serves as the downtown Fairbanks visitors center, but also includes native art, dioramas of
Alaskan life and much historical information relating to native Alaskan life and history, especially the move to statehood and the rights of natives, which was led by native leader Morris Thompson.
Fairbanks Ice Museum
This museum provided an interesting video of the International Ice Sculpture competition which is held in Fairbanks every winter and attracts ice sculptors from all over the world. In addition, there were huge freezer boxes containing some of the previous year’s sculptures as well as a local artist who demonstrated the techniques by carving a bird on a tree limb from a blank piece of ice.
El Dorado Gold Mine
Nine miles north of Fairbanks is the famous gold mine where millions of dollars in gold was recovered in the early 20th century. Now the goldmine is in the tourist trade, and they come by the hundreds. When we arrived our bus almost didn’t fit in the parking lot there were so many other buses there. We were given a ride on an “authentic” gold mine train, shown several different mining techniques and then given a very interesting water-sluice and gold panning demonstration by a man who could have stepped right out of the past. Then, on to the shed where we could try our own panning with a free bag of dirt and the guarantee we would each find some gold - and we did! Dwain got $17 worth of tiny flakes. Good thing the price of gold is so high or it wouldn’t have been worth the effort. Come to think of it, it may not have been worth the effort because no one here will buy the gold we found.
Alyeska Pipeline
On the road to the gold mine we paused at a visitors’ center for the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline System and got some pictures of the pipeline and a little information about the structure and the complications of building it through the permafrost. The perpetually frozen ground is why most of the pipeline is above ground – maintenance is much easier this way and it does less damage to the permafrost.
Riverboat Discovery
Our last day in Fairbanks we did a river cruise on the sternwheeler riverboat “Discovery.” It was a very interesting cruise along the Chena and river. After leaving the dock area we were given a demonstration of how the bush pilots take off and land their Piper Cub airplane on the water. This happened on the river right beside the sternwheeler. In the winter when the river freezes the floats are replaced with skis so they can take off and land on the ice. Further up river the boat stopped so we could watch a demonstration of a sled dog team pulling an ATV with its engine removed. Boy can those dogs move!! Once we reached the Tanana River we turned around and stopped at a replica Athabaskan Village where we learned much about one of the first people groups to live in Alaska long before the white man arrived. It was a most interesting afternoon.
We finished our stay in Fairbanks with a dinner together at Chena’s at the River’s Edge. Tomorrow we move on, back to Tok and then over the “Top of the World” Highway to Dawson City.

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Photos

2011-08-02 - Fairbanks, AK Original Visitor's Center
The building is well maintained with a beautiful flower garden on one side and a vegetable garden on the other.

2011-08-02 - Fairbanks, AK Original Visitor's Center
The building is well maintained with a beautiful flower garden on one side and a vegetable garden on the other.

2011-08-02 - Fairbanks, AK Original Visitor's Center
The building is well maintained with a beautiful flower garden on one side and a vegetable garden on the other.