Fairbanks Sights

After enjoying staying in the wilderness and small villages, we are now in Fairbanks, a small to medium sized city by our standards.  One of the surprising aspects of the area to us is the amount of military presence located here.  There is Fort Wainwright Army Base and Eielson Air Force Base located in the area.  The 354th Fighter Wing’s mission is to prepare U.S. and allied aviation forces for combat and deploy them globally.  They also stage forces to protect our interest in the Asia-Pacific, and they are the sight of Red Flag, a sort of Top Gun training facility focused on combat air simulation training.  A pretty important base I’d say.

There is a great deal to see and do here but it is still a city and we are more interested in the wilderness.  In any case, we are staying at an RV facility on the Chena River.  It is a nice park and our site is located right at the river’s edge giving us a great view unless someone happens to be in the sight adjacent to us.  That site is very small so it has only been occupied twice so far.  The girls love walking the trail that goes along the shoreline and playing with the various dogs that are here.  Yesterday as we were returning from a walk, we observed a dog on the opposite bank running up and down the shore barking at dogs on our side.  He suddenly launched himself into the water and swam across to join in the play.  Amazing.

Fairbanks has several good museums and opportunities to enjoy the rivers, hiking as well as flights to the north.  From Fairbanks there are many land, air and train tours one can take to go north over the Arctic Circle and beyond.  We are booked on a flight Tuesday evening that will take us over the Arctic Circle and the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve to Anaktuvuk Pass where there is a village we will visit.  I am very excited as that park is in my bucket list and you can only reach it by air.  As a matter of fact, it gets the fewest visits of any of the national parks but contains some of the most beautiful scenery of any of them.  While we will not get to really experience it fully, the view from above will be wonderful.

The University of Alaska is here and has a number of museums and facilities that can be visited.  This university is unique with regard to fields of study one could pursue.  Being here with access to this environment allows for some interesting research.  We visited their Museum of the North.  The museum’s history dates back to 1917 as it was part of the university charter from the beginning.  Its collections focus on all things Alaska from science, culture and history to art and even dinosaurs.  We spent an afternoon enjoying the exhibits and three films that focus on ongoing research.  On film focused on the collection and study of dinosaur and plant fossils.  The university has a massive collection to support all sorts of studies.  One film focused on the aurora borealis and the science behind this beautiful phenomenon.  Fairbanks is one of the best places to view the aurora in the winter months.  The final film focused on Bow Whales and the Arctic currents that they follow.  We are somewhat familiar with these whales as they are one of the sources of subsistence living in the native cultures of the far northern villages.  It is amazing how they put out to sea in skin boats to hunt these whales.  Incidentally, only these native peoples are allowed to hunt these whales as they are endangered.  All in all, it was a great afternoon.

Another university facility we visited is LARS -- Large Animal Research Station.  The focus at this facility is to study Muskox, Caribou and Reindeer.  This 134 acre farm is not far from where we are staying.  They have small herds of all three animals.  Here are some pictures and information we learned from our visit.

What you are seeing is a sink hole.  The area where the grass ends is the hole, just one result of global warming on this fragile environment.  The permafrost, the thick layer of soil that makes up the land here should remain frozen throughout the year.  The melting and refreezing causes these holes and also the ice heaves in the highways.  Our tour guide told us that they have no idea the depth of the hole.  They dropped in a bale of hay and it disappeared.  Kinda scary if you ask me.

 Our tour guide was quite knowledgeable and fun.  She is getting her masters here after receiving a bachelors at Mississippi State University, just 15 miles from my home town.  When she told us, I said "Wahoo, go bull dogs!"  She laughed and said that made her day.  The skull you see is a male Muskox.  Unlike the females, the top of the horns have this thick layer.  It is used to head butt during seasonal rut.  Not surprising that the males do not live as long as the females.

This is a male Muskox.  The ox have a dual layer coat.  The outer is made up of long hair much like ours but courser.  The under layer is fine and very warm  It is called qiviut.  Softer than cashmere and warmer too, it is shed only once a year.  In the wild, it is scattered wherever the ox goes.  The natives go out and collect it.  Here, they bring them into pens and use a hair pick to comb away the fur all at once.  It is then processed much like wool, spun into thread and used to make warm scarves etc.  It was for sale in the gift shop for a whopping $75 a twist.  This is just one example of the value of possibly raising the muskoxen commercially.

The Muskox went extinct here years ago.  It was brought back to this area by the university and reintroduced on Nunivak Island in the far north.  It was an amazing accomplishment of logistics and endurance by the animals themselves.  They started with 32 animals and now that herd number more than 700.  The oxen love willow.  Our guide enticed a couple of them to come to the fence to get a tasty treat.  This is the male from the picture above.  Our guide said he usually did not come but did this day.

This is the dominant female of the group we saw.  She pushed the male away and took the treat.  As you can see, she has only one horn.  She caught it in a fence and pulled it away.  The horns, unlike antlers do not regenerate.

This is a female Caribou.  She is one of several they are trying to socialize thus the halter you see her wearing.  They could use her to help raise awareness with public regarding possible use of the Caribou.  Both male and female Caribou have antlers.  This female has a young calf.

This is the calf of the female above.  It is about 4 weeks old.  It was so cute walking about.  It went to get a drink of water and climbed into the container and stood while it drank and then took a leak where it stood.  Funny.  The Caribou are not domesticated, however here they are studying what commercial benefit they might bring to the local economy.  Their pelts can be used and of course, the meat is widely eaten.

This is a female Reindeer and her calf.  The Reindeer females do not have antlers.  Reindeer have been domesticated for years.  You see farms raising them in Canada and many of the lower 48 states.  Here in Alaska, raising them is a sticky business.  Only native Alaskans may raise Alaskan Reindeer.  So, if I wanted to have a herd I would have to import Reindeer from Canada or someplace in order to have them and sell the meat.  They are so strict, should I allow a native to bring his herd over to board with mine, my herd would then become Alaskan Reindeer and I could no longer have them.  Funny, but part of the laws protecting the Native peoples.


It was quite an interesting afternoon visiting LARS.  The study that is happening here will hopefully contribute to economic development to help the Alaskans.  Since oil prices have fallen, their economy has suffered.  Interesting, what is good for us is harmful for them.

Tomorrow we are going on a stern wheeler adventure.  We will experience pioneer living and learn about the importance of bush pilots.  Of course, we will certainly enjoy being on the river.