North Pole Alaska

One of the must stops on any trip to Alaska, we were told, is at North Pole, where they “take Christmas very seriously.” So we stopped. And we shopped. Just a little.

Very cool murals on the sides of the building.

Santa’s reindeer farm!

Even the street names…

Late August and the days are still long!

Had a great conversation with this gal who runs the local North Pole visitors center. Located in an old log cabin with a sod roof.

In 1967, much of Fairbanks was flooded due to heavy rains that fell in mid August causing the Chena river to overflow its banks. So they undertook a massive flood control project to build a several mile long flood plain up stream to control any future overflows of the river.

On top of the dike. Interesting that it was August and raining like crazy and we were visiting a flood control project built as a result of an August flood.

This map shows the extent of the dike and the flood control system. One side benefit is that several large recreation areas and campgrounds were created during the dike construction effort.

But if not…