❄️ Travel Alaska: Quick Look @ Mat-Su Parks Headquarters, in Wasilla AK
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In this video, my brother and I were on our way to Fingerlake State Recreation Site. But on the way, we bumped into the Mat-Su Parks Headquarters and decided to give it a quick look. The cabin houses we saw were nice to see, along with the dozen or so of road signs.
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ABOUT:
My name is Lindo Korchi and this channel is about detailed travel. I travel because I love to be engulfed in distinct cultures and be amongst a different people and culture. It also expands one's awareness of life. And that fascinates me.
As I travel, I hope to bring you with me on these journeys (via video/photo/text) of completely different worlds. I thank you for your time. Please feel free to write a comment, suggestion, or engage in the comments below. Let's connect!
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Dorothy (Guzzi) Page
Dorothy Page, known as the “Mother of the Iditarod”, enlisted the support of Joe Redington Sr., known as the “Father of the Iditarod”, to stage the first race in 1967 between Knik and Big Lake. In 1973 the race was run over 1, 000 miles between Anchorage and Nome. Today, “The Last Great Race” is staged each March with mushers from around the world competing in Alaska’s premier sporting event.
Page advocated tirelessly to have Congress designate the Iditarod Trail as a National Historic Trail in 1978. Across the U.S., only 16 trails have won this historical designation. The Alaskan trail celebrates the indispensable role played by “man’s best friend” in the last great gold rush.
As a writer and editor, Page published the Iditarod’s annual race program and edited, The Iditarod Runner. Page also wrote for the Frontiersman and the Valley Sun. She was a member of the Alaska Press Women and National Federation of Press Women and received State and National Press Awards for her publication of the Iditarod Trail Annual.
In the Mat-Su Valley, Page established the Wasilla-Knik-Willow Creek Historical Society, the Wasilla Museum, and Knik Museum. As a public servant Page was on the Wasilla Library Board, Wasilla’s Republican Committee, Wasilla City Counsel and served as Mayor of Wasilla. She was recognized for her years of service to the Mat-Su Borough by resolution honoring her “Distinguished Service to the Community”.
In 1984, Page was the recipient of the Governor’s Volunteer Award, presented by Governor Bill Sheffield. She was the recipient of the Mayor of Wasilla’s proclamation honoring Page’s life in 1989 and she received the State of Alaska’s Legislative Citation by the 16th Alaska Legislature in 1990.
It's About Time: The City of Wasilla Remembers History
It's About Time: The City of Wasilla Remembers History
I've been watching closely while the City of Wasilla has relocated, revamped, restored and reinvigorated the appreciation of our local history. The pioneers who built this State did so in humble buildings that still stand today. The City of Wasilla, under the direction of Mayor Rupright, has been diligently working on the downtown historical park, next to the Wasilla Meta Rose Library and the Dorothy Page Museum.
We recently spoke with LeRoi Heaven, head of the Wasilla Historical Society, while a city work crew lowered the Old Wasilla Post Office onto it's new foundation in the Wasilla Historical Town Site.
Day8: The Last Chance Mining Museum
Seth and I spend a rainy afternoon at the Last Chance Mining Museum in Juneau, Alaska, a place of ruins, ghosts, and one very nice caretaker.
Laurel Bill on Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil, Knik withers
Author/speaker Laurel Downing Bill on Alaska Story Time with Aunt Phil features how Knik, once the largest town in Cook Inlet region with 500 residents, withered away after the Alaska Railroad bypassed it to build the Alaska Railroad close to Wasilla in 1915-1917.
When the U.S. Post Office opened its branch in Knik on Oct. 27, 1904, it signaled that Knik was a bone fide community. But it only remained open for 13 years because of the Federal government’s decision to bypass it when it laid out its plans for a railroad to connect Seward to Fairbanks in 1915.
Thousands of gold seekers had streamed into Cook Inlet by the late 1800s. These people hacked out primitive trails connecting scattered camps and eventually unified the region between Cook Inlet on the south and the Talkeetna Mountains on the north, and the Matanuska River on the east and the Susitna River in the west.
Although few of the prospectors who entered Cook Inlet became rich, a small Dena’ina Athabascan settlement called Knik had enough commercial activity that the Alaska Commercial Co., which had taken over the assets of the Russian American Co., opened a trading post there in 1882. (Some say Knik means “fire,” and other sources say it means “among the islands.”)
Russian clergy journals noted that the Natives of Old Knik moved their village to New Knik (Eklutna) in 1897 – perhaps because so many gold miners were flooding into the area. They even took the St. Nicholas chapel with them. The Natives did help the miners, though, working as guides, chopping logs, packing freight and in many other ways.
Knik’s population grew to several hundred as hard rock followed placer mining. And the discovery of gold in the Interior in 1902-03 helped to keep their hopes afloat. That discovery, near what would become Fairbanks, led to more intense mining everywhere.
Discoveries of gold north of Knik in the Talkeetna Mountains, as well as placer gold northwest on the Iditarod River, made the community across the Turnagain Arm from modern-day Birchwood the major trading center for the gold and coal mines in the region. At its peak, Knik boasted a population close to 500 and was the largest town on Cook Inlet.
But after railroad engineers laid out a route for the tracks 13 miles north of Knik, and established a railroad camp at a place called Wasilla, many Knik businesses and residents moved to that new settlement. Knik eventually died. The old pool hall, now the Knik Museum, and a small empty cabin that sits nearby are the only original buildings left of this once-thriving community.
This episode aired on CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA Channel 11 Daybreak on Oct. 27, 2016.
Alaska history
LaurelDowningBillAuntPhil
Oscar Anderson House
A tour of the Oscar Anderson House.