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Saturday, June 7, 2014

The Community Museum & Dog Mushing Museum in Fairbanks, Alaska






Fairbanks' former City Hall is
home to the Community Museum










Eric admires the 1962
Bombardier Skidoo.

Top speed on this 4-cycle,
7 horse power machine
is 15 miles per hour.






Built on a flood plain,
Fairbanks is prone
to flooding.







Flooding in 1967
was severe.












After the flood waters receded,
the Chena River was damned.







Previous to the 1967 flood, property along the river wasn't in high demand.  After the 1967 flood, riverside property went up in value and has been developed.









The Gold Rush is eventually
came to Fairbanks.









Gold mining in the Fairbanks area is hard rock mining.  It's much ore labor intensive than mining along streams and rivers.






Prospectors & entrepreneurs
traveling through Canada were
required to bring 2,000 pounds
of gear.






The Canadian Government thought that the requiring a ton of gear per person traveling through Canada to Alaska would dissuade the adventuresome from heading north to a shaky future.  Over 100,000 people gathered together a ton of gear and made the trip to Alaska between 1896 and 1897.








A typical prospector's tent







At the Dog Mushing Museum we were treated to all things dog sled related.







A skin covered 
dog sled







A wooden dog sled









Dog Sled Races are big in Alaska.

Champion Dog Sled Racers
are heroes in Alaska.







Each year the Iditarod Dog Sled Race is run to commemorate the 1925 dog sledding journey from Anchorage to Nome that delivered life saving diphtheria serum to seriously ill children.

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