Tuesday 20^th August

Fairbanks – Museum of the North

Bad weather forced the intrepid wilderness adventurers back out into civilisation.  We made the best of the spare day by driving up to Fairbanks, and spending several hours in the University of Alaska Museum of the North. Incidentally, at UA campus, I saw the only evidence of agriculture I have seen here.  They are experimenting with something, but I could not tell what.  

The museum is housed in this new building, which has all sorts of energy capturing design features.

 

 We met Otto the bear ....

Fairbanks has a population of about 32,000.  The whole of Alaska is only around mid 600,000s, about the same as Tasmania.  Bit bigger in area than Tassie though.  

One of the things we saw at the Museum was a movie about Winter in the north.  Fairbanksans do not have running water in the winter.  Everything is frozen.  So they have to go out the back to the outhouse if nature calls during the night.  The benefit of this of course, is that they get to see the Aurora borealis, the great northern lights. They reckon it is worth it!  I would love to come back here in the winter to see it. 

 

The museum is a wonderful new building, with displays of Inuit culture and lifestyle, and of course of the animals of the wild.  Also Alaskan art, much of which had great appeal for me.  I was interested in the degree of decoration in the traditional clothing of the Inuit people – heavily beaded headgear, outer garments and footwear.  Not sure where the beads came from though? 

Hours passed at the Museum of the North.  Dinner at Chena’s afterwards was superb.  It is on the Chena River which runs through Fairbanks.  My seared salmon with blueberry salsa was the best meal I have had here. 

Drive back to Denali.  The big red SUV is very good for lapping up the miles in comfort.