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...
I hiked up to Birch Hill Cemetery before the snow flew. On the property’s south slope (beyond the cemetery’s perimeter) is a small bluff, and along the bluff’s edge the trees are marvelously twisted...
I have yet to seen any recently manufactured screwdrivers that I would call beautiful–even pretty. Most contemporary screwdrivers are simply clunky–all function and no form. If manufacturers do make a nod towards aesthetics, they...
Before the development of Fort Knox gold mine northeast of Fairbanks, it’s likely that most people had only heard about the Fairbanks area’s placer gold production. The early drift mines and later dredges that...
Today was a mellow winter day. The temperature was up in the low 20s (Fahrenheit), and a blustery wind cast about all day for things to toss around. Twigs were scattered along the street,...
I was up at the university at dusk (which is coming earlier and earlier these days) waiting for my son. There is a little mugo pine (not native to Alaska by the way) by...
I gave a presentation at the Pioneer Home yesterday afternoon and had so much fun. I showed a bunch of my drawings and talked about historic resources in the Fairbanks area. Many of...
The Ester Gold Camp hotel, constructed in the 1930s, was originally a mess hall-bunkhouse for the Fairbanks Exploration Company. The structure is at the center of Ester Camp Historic District, located in Ester,...
I have a small shed with a cedar shake roof. I thought the snow formed interesting patterns on the shakes as it settled in the afternoon sun a few days ago.
The giant dredges scattered along the creeks around Fairbanks are testament to the decades when dredging dominated local gold production, just as the headframes and mill buildings in the hills are reminders of hard-rock...
