Page 175 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

WESTERN INTERIOR ALASK A  173

plan a visit to Denali National
Park. It is also well­known for
the rough winter route from
here to Kantishna (see p169).
Known as the Stampede Trail,
the route is accessible by
snowmachine in winter,
but river crossings make it
prac tically impassable in the Old river tug, the Taku Chief, outside the Nenana Visitor Center
summer. About 4 miles (6 km)
north of Healy, the trail passes Athabaskan word. The town Each year, people from all across
an old Fairbanks city bus. It began as a trading post the state place bets on when
was here that 24­year­old Chris for river travelers, and the ice will go out on the Tanana.
McCandless died of injury eventually came to be called Any surge in the river ice shifts
and starvation in 1992. He Nenana, which means “a good a four­legged “tripod” on shore,
intended to live off the land, camp site between the rivers.” In which pulls a cord, which in turn
away from civilization, and to the 1920s, it served as a rail road trips the clock on the adjacent
experience the raw Alaskan construction camp, and gained tower. All correct entries split half
wilderness. His story is fame on July 15, 1923, when the take and the organizers get
documented in Jon Krakauer’s President Warren G Harding the other half.
book Into the Wild and film of drove in the golden spike that
the same name. completed the Alaska Railroad
between Seward and Fairbanks.
The old railroad depot at the
e Nenana end of Main Street houses the
Alaska Railroad Museum.
58 miles (93 km) S of Fairbanks. A block away, the log­built
Transport map E3. * 400. @
Anchorage–Fairbanks. n A St & Parks St. Mark’s Mission Church
Hwy, 832­5446. _ Nenana Ice Classic is worth a visit, as is the Taku
(Feb–Apr). ∑ nenana.org Chief, a river tug that once
pushed barges down the Four-legged “tripod” for determining
The little service center of Tanana. Today, it stands outside ice breakup
Nenana lies at the confluence the Nenana Visitor Center.
of the Nenana and Tanana The Alfred Starr Cultural
Rivers. At the turn of the Center has displays on Native r Ester
20th century, it was known as culture, plus a small gift shop. 6 miles (10 km) W of Fairbanks.
Tortella or Tortilli, apparently Nenana is the site of the Transport map E3. * 2,400. @
derivations of a long forgotten Nenana Ice Classic competi tion. Anchorage–Fairbanks. ∑ fairbanks-
alaska.com/ester-alaska.htm
Northeast of Nenana on the Parks
Highway is the old mining and
Gold Rush town of Ester. In 1906,
in its hey day, Ester had a popula­
tion of 5,000. The Fairbanks
Exploration Company built
the Ester Gold Camp in the
mid­1930s to service the area’s
dredging operations. The camp
closed in the 1950s, but enjoyed
a stint as a mining­themed tourist
camp from 1958 to 2008. Today,
Ester retains a small mining vill­
age ambience, but is entering a
new phase as a growing suburb
of Fairbanks. Most residents are
employed in Fairbanks or at the
University of Alaska Fairbanks
(see p175), although there are
some small local businesses:
a saloon, a library, fire station,
post office, arts and crafts
studios, three active gold mines
Now open only for testing, the Healy Clean Coal Plant once generated energy using Usibelli coal and a summer farmers’ market.

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