Area_H_04_11_24.pdf

H.1Size: 30”w x 50”h Output:

Mounting:

Scale Drawn: 100% @ 12” = 12” Vendor:

3087 TOK APLIC

03.04.24

H.1 Dogsledding Topic Panel

Design Pre-Production Graphic Designer: Nan Hildebrandt

A Lasting Icon Dog sleds are a classic symbol of travel in Alaska. Invented by the Inuit people of the far north, dog sledding was adopted by Athabascans, fur traders, and miners. The sleds enabled heavy loads to be carried over long distances and rough terrain during the winter and well into spring.

Today, snow machines fill this practical role. But dog sledding remains an iconic part of Alaskan identity. Races like the Iditarod and the Yukon Quest sled are a thrilling highlight of winter here.

Athabascan people used pack dogs long before sleds became popular here. They gave the dogs saddlebags to hold supplies.

William E. Simeone

04.11.24

H.2.aSize: 168”w x 105”h Output: SEG

3087 TOK APLIC

09.22.23

H.2.a Dogsled Backdrop

Design Pre-Production Graphic Designer: Nan Hildebrandt 04.11.24

H.3Size: 113.5”w x 65.5”h

3087 TOK APLIC

09.22.23 12.18.23

H.3 Exterior Window Graphic

Design Pre-Production Graphic Designer: Nan Hildebrandt 04.11.24

H.4Size: 94”w x 46”h

3087 TOK APLIC

04.09.24

H.4 Traveling the Interior Graphic Panel

Design Pre-Production Graphic Designer: Nan Hildebrandt

Traveling the Interior

The Klondike Gold Rush inspired writers like Robert

Service and Jack London. Their poems and stories still delight visitors to this area.

Enrico Blasutto/Creative Commons

This copper blade was found by archaeologists in the Fortymile Country. It was made by Athabascan craftspeople. They mined the metal in the Wrangell Mountains. From there, they carried it north along trade routes between what is now Valdez and Eagle.

Scott Shirar

Travelers on the Valdez-Eagle trail in the early 1900s.

Alaska State Library

Roadhouses like this one at Gulkana gave weary travelers a place to rest.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Alaska State Library

Library of Congress

Library and Archives Canada

Alaska State Library

A dog team on a frozen river, 1898.

Y u k o n R i v e r

Y u k o n R i v e r

Alaska’s rugged terrain and vast distances make travel a challenge. But for as long as people have lived here, they have created routes to connect distant places and communities.

Alaskans have crisscrossed this region by land, by water, by ice, and by air. They've gone on foot, on sleds, on steamboats, and more. They've traveled for trade, for tourism, in search of fortune, and for the love of the landscape. These journeys exemplify the Alaskan spirit.

“The land itself was a desolation, lifeless, without movement, so lone and cold that the spirit of it was not even that of sadness… It was the masterful and incommunicable wisdom of eternity laughing at the futility of life and the effort of life.

I wanted the gold, and I sought it;

I scrabbled and mucked like a slave.

Was it famine or scurvy—I fought it;

I hurled my youth into a grave.

A steamboat at Eagle, 1900.

An Athabascan paddler in a birch bark canoe near Eagle, around 1900.

Google, Landsat/Copernicus, IBCAO

H.6Size: 46”w x 46”h

3087 TOK APLIC

03.04.24

H.6 Up in the Air Topic Panel

Design Pre-Production Graphic Designer: Nan Hildebrandt

Up, Up, and Away!

Even with new roads, much of Alaska remained difficult to reach. The arrival of airplanes changed that. Bush planes similar to the Carbon Cub scale model overhead can land on short patches of gravel or grass. That makes it easy to reach remote locations that previously took days of grueling travel.

Today, planes continue to play a critical role in getting around Alaska. They carry mail, supplies, and passengers to isolated communities.

Bush planes are agile flyers that are built for the backcountry. They can take off and land in weather conditions and places that are inaccessible to larger planes.

An American-made P-63 Kingcobra on its way to Russia, 1944.

N727RH/Creative Commons U.S. Air Force

Northway Airport, 41 air miles southeast of Tok.

H.8.aSize: 114.5”w x 15”h

3087 TOK APLIC

03.04.24

H.8.a On the Road Reading Rail

Design Pre-Production Graphic Designer: Nan Hildebrandt

As you explore Alaska, you may see signs of old military construction. Quonset huts like this one were left behind by Army road crews.

On (and Off) the Road Traveling overland in Alaska has always been challenging. Cars and trucks made it easier to get around—but first they needed roads. The federal government wanted to support mining and growth in Alaska. They used the military to build many of the roads here, eventually including the famous Alaska Highway and the Taylor Highway from Tok to Eagle.

Even today, many areas still can't be reached by road. For those, Alaskans fall back on their ingenuity and self-reliance to find a way through.

As you explore Alaska, you may see signs of old military construction. Quonset huts like this one were left behind by Army road crews.

Matt King/Creative Commons

See that old machine outside? It's a horse-drawn road grader like the one in this 1928 photo. Many of Alaska's first roads were maintained using machines like these. They were a good start, but they couldn't keep up with growing roads.

University of Alaska Fairbanks

“Families would just move out of the way of the construction crews because of the drinking and the chronic rape and all of the domestic issues… My family just moved out of the way completely, 60 miles away, because of what we’d seen.”

University of Alaska Fairbanks

A construction camp on the Taylor Highway near Chicken, 1947.

8”w x 5”h H.8.f

8”w x 5”h H.8.g