This Memorial Day weekend, the cargo hold of the old sternwheeler was open to the public for the first time in six years.
Map of the Nenana’s old splashing grounds
The steamer Nenana plied the waters of The Yukon and its tributaries from 1933 to 1952. During that time, the Nenana brought goods, news, transportation and employment to the villages along the Yukon River.
Inside the cargo hold, you can see the boiler and the engine room. The boiler is the steamer’s second when it was fitted to run on oil, instead of cords of wood.
The cool feature is the diorama that runs along the outside walls. The display depicts all the villages that the SS Nenana served. At 340 feet long, with a mural background of close to 240 feet, the diorama is one impressive piece of artwork.
The steamer’s namesake: The town of Nenana, circa 1930. Tanana, circa 1918Not surprisingly, Nenana had the largest display
Besides the villages and the Alaska Railroad, six Interior Alaska rivers are also depicted: The Yukon, Tanana, Nenana, Innoko, Koyukok and Porcupine.
The plans are to have the cargo area open most of the summer, with a major restoration project to begin on the Nenana in 2025.
A Yukon Quest musher and his team breaks through the ice fog…
The revamped Yukon Quest race had its start on Saturday morning. It was a balmy -45F at the first mush.
Officially, Fairbanks dropped to -50F that morning. It was our first “official” -50 since 2017. It was the third morning at the cabin during this cold snap, that I saw -50 on my thermometer. For some reason, my cabin is not considered the official weather station for Fairbanks. For purely political reasons, that honor lies with the Fairbanks International Airport.
Speaking of streaks broken: I broke my previous record for distance traveled with “thumpity-thumpity-thumpity” coming from my tires. For those left out in the heat, tires make that sound after a flat spot forms where they met the driveway during extreme cold temps. It usually only takes a few hundred yards for the tires to warm up enough to reform, but in fifty below, the flat spot lingers for a mile or so.
Friday, January 19th, was the first day since autumn, that I noticed light still in the sky when I drove home. It wasn’t much, and it didn’t last long, but it was there! Granted, I actually left work on time, but I’m counting the sighting as a moral win.
Our current length of day is 5 hrs, 40 mins, with length of visible light at 7 hrs, 53 mins.
That’s the good news.
As I type this, it it -28F outside, with a low tonight of -38F. The high on Monday is alleged to be -30F. Luckily, the temperature on Monday night should only drop down to -34F.
You may now go back to griping about your weather in the Lower 48.
It’s possible, some readers may have noticed, that I have not been much of a contributor to wordpress lately. Life has strange detours, and in the past year I have taken on a new project that seems to devour time like a humpback whale gulping down krill. This reroute of my world has been fairly drastic, and I have not found a way to include blogging in my time management plan.
The flip side of the same coin, is that I have not found a creative way to bring the new project onto these pages. Maybe I will find a path between the two, but so far that is a trail I have not traveled yet.
This blog originally started out as a travel alert when I drove the old Land Rover down to the Yucatan from Alaska’s North Slope. It eventually morphed into a window to Alaska’s cabin life. I’m not sure where it will go from here, but it seems like it will have to morph once again if it is to continue in some fashion.
Some readers have been dropping in to see what the heck is going on between These Circles from the very first mile, and some have been lured in due to the Fat Bear content. Whichever the case may be, I sincerely appreciate the interest, comments and, in general, simply the interaction. After 13-14 years of posts, I felt a proper explanation was warranted. Time will tell where things go from here. I do have one or two ideas to proceed, but I still need to create the time and find something I want to say.
Thanks for reading.
Cheers
P.S. The image came from one of the Alaska Railroad’s social media sites. I included it here because it is one fine image, and because there is no caboose.
