Fairbanks with more than a chance of rain

Another day of rain plagued our travels today. Somehow the excitement of gorgeous scenery is tarnished when the weather doesn’t cooperate. We thought things were going to clear up by noon, but it was not to be.

Despite the weather, we did do some traveling around Fairbanks today. I spoke with another traveler last evening (from Washington state) and she shared that Fairbanks has grown enormously in the past fifteen years. It has a population of 31,000 but it serves a large, large geographic region. Consequently, it has the requisite Walmart, Sam’s Club, four McDonald’s, etc. The airport here is remarkably large and full sized jets fly in and out regularly. Hard to believe that Fairbanks has the population of our city proper (Port Huron) and yet has all the amenities of a larger town. It is also home to Eielson Air Force Base. The base covers 62,000 square miles of air space, the largest in North America.

Fairbanks also has over half of its employment created by government jobs. Between federal, state and military jobs, more than 50% of the employment is government based. Alaska has NO state sales tax. How weird is that? There are a number of municipalities that have their own sales tax, however. I guess that is one way to keep your tax dollars local. lol

We visited a place called Pioneer Village today. The admission price is incredible: free. It has a number of historic buildings that have been moved to this location and some others that are replicas. Alaska doesn’t have the long history that a Boston or Richmond would have and in some ways it makes it more interesting. So many of the things they have displayed occurred in the 20th century, so it is easier to relate to many of the events. Old time Alaskans are referred to as "Sourdoughs". Inside of the Pioneer Village was a museum that contained old dog sleds, telegraphs, gold mine wagons, and more. They had a copy of a newspaper from 1923. In the summer of 1923, Alaska was building the Alaskan Railroad. They had invited President William Harding to participate in the event and drive the golden spike. Apparently, many presidents and dignitaries had been invited to events in the past and although promises were made, they were always followed with disappointment. This time, however, Harding made good on his promise and arrived in Alaska with his wife. The paper oozed with excitement and happiness about his visit. They were so honored to have the President visit the territory. I read a couple other papers located in the museum and only three weeks later, Harding died! He was in San Francisco when he passed away. Not sure if he became ill while visiting Alaska as he was hospitalized on the west coast only a week or two later. Yikes. The Pioneer Village has the train car in which Harding rode on display as well.

The village also had shops with Native products. They even had something called Birch Syrup (instead of maple). It has a more molasses type flavor than maple. Not my cup of tea.

Another big draw in Fairbanks is a stern wheel paddleboat ride. The 3.5-hour ride visits the location of Susan Butcher’s (Iditarod champion) home and sees her dogs. Unfortunately, she passed away from leukemia last year. The remarkable thing to me was watching bus after bus of people arriving to take the boat ride. There must have been a dozen busses from Princess Cruise Lines and Holland America in the parking lot. They must drive up from Skagway or some other Alaskan port for this tour.

We wish we had more to share today. We are looking forward to a better weather day tomorrow and hopefully a more interesting blog post.