| Day 26 - 27 - 28 in Fairbanks, AK |
| Day 26 |
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Today we had an all day bus tour that started at the University of Alaska Museum. As you can see, it was is an amazing building, both inside and outside.
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| Spence Schaaf looks at a horse made entirely from willow type branches. |
The entry hall and stairs to the 2nd floor gallery. |
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| The gallery of Alaska has many very informative displays on everything from the Mammoth skeleton to indian art to the Northern Lights. |
This is a Steppe Bison that was discovered in 1979. It was wonderfully preserved and was blue in color; thus it was named Blue Babe. |
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| These are beautiful pots made from grasses. |
This is a brown bear that weighed almost 1200 lbs. |
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| The second floor is the Rose Berry Alaska Art Gallery. |
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| Our tour continued at the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station. |
They are raising Musk Ox. All the Musk Oxen in Alaska, Canada and Greenland are descendents of 13 animals that were brought from Greenland in the early 1900's/. |
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| They also raise Reindeer. On the right is a calf born this Spring. |
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| Next stop was the Ice Museum. The presentation started with a movie describing the Ice Sculpture Festival they hold in March every year. |
After the presentation we were invited to look at the ice sculptures contained in three rooms with the temperatures held at 25 degrees. |
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| The final demonstration was put on by a local ice sculptor. He started with a 1 ft square of ice and finished with this bird on a branch. He did it in about 10 to 15 minutes. He started with a chain saw and ended with an electric grinder. |
| Day 27 - Fairbanks, AK |
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| Today was a free day in Fairbanks, so we all had different agendas. Susan and I went to the Georgeson Botanical Gardens run by the University of Alaska. They had many different flowers and vegetable gardens. These are just a few examples. |
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| They had many colors of pansies and pionies. |
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| At 7:00 PM, nine of us brave souls boarded a 10 place airplane that flew us to Coldfoot, AK. |
This is Fairbanks from the air. |
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| The Alaska pipeline looks like a small ribbon of steel from the air. |
There are a number of pumping stations along the pipeline that help keep the oil moving and to monitor the pipeline. |
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| We are on final approach for the gravel airstrip at Coldfoot, AK. It was started as a mining town, but most people have moved out. It now has a bar and a gas station. |
This was the sign we saw as we pulled onto the highway to Barrow, AK. The highway at this point is all gravel. However, it seemed to be fairly well maintained. |
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| We stopped for a picture of the pipeline. It only goes underground if the permafrost is far enough below ground to allow it. Here it is going under a river. The dug up the river in the winter so they didn't have to deal with diverting the water. . The supports are filled with an inert gas that rises to the fins as it heats and the fins then dissipate the heat so the permafrost does not melt. |
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| Here we are arriving at Wiseman, AK. It was established in 1908 during the gold rush era. but unlike Coldfoot, it has been a viable town ever since. It currently has eight families living in the town. |
This is the center of Wiseman. |
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| The old post office was closed a number of years ago. Now mail is delivered and picked up twice a week. |
There is quite a variety of homes in the town. This one seemed to be in a little better condition. |
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| This is an abonded home. At least I hope it is. |
We were given a running commentary for about a hour by "Jack" the resident historian. He has lived here since he was a child. I imagine that is pretty much the only way one would stay here. |
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| I am into windows so these are a couple of shots I took in the town. |
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| This is the newest house in Wiseman. It is owned by two physicians. The wife and husband swap days going into Fairbanks to work. They love sled dogs and mushing in the winter, so they moved here for that purpose. |
This is the Wiseman Trading Company. |
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| It is unattended, so you are on the honor system to pay for any item you purchase. |
As you can see, you do not have a very wide selection. |
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| I got a kick out of this house. It sported a solar panel on a house that had to be close to 100 years old. |
Our last stop was the Wiseman Museum. It consisted of old pictures hung on the wall and a number of pictures and articles scatted on tables. |
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| We were transported back to Coldfoot and boarded our planes about 11:00 PM. |
We did get a chance to see the midnight sun. This picture was take at midnight. |
| We arrived back in Fairbanks at 12:15 AM. Note how bright it is. Yes, it is difficult to get to sleep at night. |
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| Day 28 - Fairbanks, AK |
Today was a free day for all of us. Some caught up on shopping and doing laundry; others went golfing, flying or just lounging around. Therefore, I do not have any pictures to share with you.
Tomorrow we are on our way to Denali Park. |
| Days 29 - 31 - Denali Park, AK |
