7/29/2014 All Things Chicken

Did you ever play "chicken"? eat chicken? (silly question)

Did you ever visit "Chicken"--in Alaska?

We did, today.

There's a special reason it is named "Chicken"  The original settlers (gold miners) wanted to call it "Ptarmigan", a plentiful local bird that filled many a pot.  But....the settlers couldn't spell "Ptarmigan"....it became Chicken.  Truth.

Chicken is 78 miles from Tok, 100 miles from Dawson City, 278 miles from Fairbanks.

Winter population is either 3 or 6, depends on whom you ask.  Summer numbers soar to 30-50.
Snow plows don't run in winter--until April.  Low temperatures may reach 80-85 BELOW zero.

The mail comes by plane every Tuesday and Friday.  But, the postmistress works five days a week, all year--we asked her. 

The residents of Chicken have done a marvelous job of capitalizing on their name.

 Look closely at the name of the building.

Compare the trees to these.  They are huge.

Gold Dredge

 It's not "Woodstock", it is "Chickenstock".  This summer there were eight bands and 450 people.

Wild blueberries growing close to the ground in the forest.  We picked enough for blueberry pancakes.  

Employees from The Milepost were in Chicken looking for new businesses, checking on mileage,  anything that should be in or removed from The Milepost.


Each major highway has numbered markers mile-by-mile.  The Milepos is a book  that has 782 pages that highlight each mile marker with suggestions to stop and why; it highlights all of the villages,cities with pertinent information.  Most visiting travelers use The Milepost as they travel.