July 30 - Day 25 - Taylor Highway and Chicken

The second half of our trip today was taking the Taylor Highway north to "Beautiful Downtown Chicken"!

Our original plan was to take the Taylor to Chicken, then the Top of the World Highway to the Canadian Border (where it becomes the Klondike Loop), which we would the follow back to the Alaska Highway at Whitehorse in Yukon Territory. Ever since we arrived in Alaska, we have been hearing reports that parts of the Taylor Highway have been closed due to washouts, so we are not sure if we can get through. It may very well be too rough. We decided to go as far as Chicken, then see how road conditions are.

The Taylor Highway is a patchwork of pavement, chip seal, and gravel. The condition varies from good to very rough, and there are lots of sharp turns, frost heaves, road damage and steep up- and downhill grades.

The sun was out, so I got lots of photos. Unfortunately, the scenery could have been better. In 2004, the Taylor Complex Fires burned 1.3 million acres in this area, so there are thousands of acres of blackened forest all along the road. Milepost magazine reports that in 2004, there were over 700 wildfires in Alaska, and apparently that was not considered unusual.

After traveling slowly for about 2 hours, we reached our destination - "Beautiful Downtown Chicken."

The quirky little community of Chicken is situated 66 miles from Tetlin Jct. and 94 miles from Eagle. It has 21 summer residents, 6 of whom live here year round. This was and is a gold mining town. The entire "business district" consists of three enterprises, which are, I think, owned by the same person. This is the home of Chickenstock, A Music Fest on Top of the World, which debuted in 2007, featuring the Last Frontier Bluegrass Band. There is no town water, sewer or electricity. Wells, generators and outhouses are utilized here, with residents providing their own drinking water, and generating their own electricity. It's a wonder they have Wi-Fi!

Chicken was supposedly named by early miners who wanted to name their camp Ptarmigan, but were unable to spell it and settled instead for chicken, the common name in the North for Prarmigan. Average temperature in July is 59 (record high of 95 set in 1925 - today is 80), and average low in January is -13 (record low of -79 was set in 2009).

We drove into the town and stopped at the Chicken Creek Saloon. The saloon is great! There's a sign outside the front door saying a state law required that all firearms be left with the bartender. It's dark and dingy and small, with an old wooden bar, the edges of which are scarred and carved with initials and sayings. The ceiling and walls are completely covered with innumerable bits of memorabilia from past visitors, including hats, bumper stickers, flags, license plates, t-shirts, name tags, neck ties, bandanas, and what at first appeared to be small tattered rags (we later found out that the "rags" are women's underwear that have been shot out of a small canon outside the bar -- apparently a local custom). The owner, a woman who came here in 1976, saw us drive in. She told us that the best employee she ever had was a guy from Hollis, NH - he worked here for 15 years.

There were only about 8 stools at the bar, and we were lucky enough to find seats. We became immediate celebrities, since most of those present had never met anyone from New Hampshire - a couple didn't even know it was a state!

Donny (who has the knack of being able to talk to anyone anywhere anytime) immediately struck up a conversation with the guy next to him, who happened to be a construction worker who is an Alaskan native. They became instant best buds, swapping logging and dirtwork tales.
After a couple of cold beers, we had to leave to check in at the campground. Our refrigerator needed to be plugged in, since the propane doesn't work. I caught up on email and the blog, and Donny went back to the bar for a while before supper, where he met a few more of the locals.

Apparently the levity at the saloon went on for quite a while -- about 10:30 we could hear all of the patrons laughing loudly and doing very convincing wolf howls!

What a great place -- Not everyone's "cup-of-tea" to be sure, but this is the REAL Alaska. The locals are fiercely conservative and loyal to their state; they say that it should be its own country. They refer to themselves as "we," while the rest of the U.S. is "they."

There is an old gold dredge here, along with lots of local mining history. There's old construction equipment all over the place, too. We may stay here a couple of days.
Tonight I got a nice sunset pic at 11:15 p.m., and tomorrow we are going on a tour of the gold dredge, and one of the locals (one of the 6 full time residents) is going to show Donny around. We also want to do some exploring.

Cheryl and Don