July 21: Chena River Cruise, Fairbanks, Alaska
Bob: We set off bright and early for our riverboat cruise on the Discovery III---the third ship that has been conducting these daily tours for many years. Our first entertainment was a bush float plane that flew in and landed right next to our ship, then took off again. Our announcer, a radio station host with a low, gravelly voice almost exactly like Paul Harvey, explained how significant these float planes were for transportation to the huge areas of Alaska that are not connected by roads. In fact, the only section of Alaska covered by anything like a road network is the rough triangle of highways that connects Fairbanks, Anchorage, and Tok (pronounced with a long "o" as in "smoke"). |
Monika: Today we were going to do the riverboat cruise. I had thought it would be a rather nice ride up and down the Chena river. But they had several surprise stops for us all hosted by an old radio announcer. On each stop the people on land had microphones that brought their answers right into the ship's PA system. Very slick!. The first of the stops was a float plane fly by and landing. |
Bob: Our next stop in cruising down the river was beside the dog-training kennels run by Susan G. Butcher's family. Butcher was deservedly famous for winning the wintertime Iditarod dog sled race across Alaska three times! We paused out in the river while Butcher's daughter explained her family's philosophy of treating the dogs well and using only positive reinforcement rather than punishments to train them. That strategy plus a completely unorthodox method of testing each dog no matter what its genetic background and then simply cross-breeding all the ones that showed exceptional endurance, motivation, determination and human-friendliness, was clearly a winning combination. Rather than using purebred huskies, malamutes, etc., this completely "merit-based" breeding program produced high-performing mutts completely devoid of the genetic weaknesses of the purebreds. But reading Jack London's "Call of the Wild" in my youth about the wild, vicious, half-wolf nature of sled dogs, I was completely taken aback by the complete friendliness of the Butcher kennel's dogs when we visited with them later in the tour. Mutts they may be, but they were seriously nice dogs! But boy were those dogs motivated to run! They were yelping and yipping with excitement as they were put into a dog sled harness attached to the front of an All Terrain Vehicle parked in neutral with its engine off. When the "Go" signal was given the dogs accelerated that ATV + human rider so quickly that Monika almost didn't get the picture before the ATV was whisked out of sight. Holy cow! You would really have to see it to believe how fast and strongly a team of those dogs could pull. Also, I was impressed by the spotless cleanliness of the dog kennels carefully spaced on a pristine concrete pad--clearly they are well and lovingly cared for even though they are "working" dogs. |
Monika: The next stop was a dog breeding kennel run by Susan Butcher's family. The daughter explained how they chose the puppies to be trained for the dog sled races. They were not purebred, but selected on eagerness, endurance, and motivation. They had some pups that were just starting their training. But the highlight was a training run with an ATV. The dogs were standing by the lines and knew they were going to get a good run. So during all this chattering between shore and ship, they got more and more impatient until they were finally harnessed. When they got the go-ahead signal they were off so fast that I barely had time to get the picture, although I was all set. |
Bob: The Discovery III followed the Chena to its confluence with the Tanana River, which in turn runs over to the main Yukon River. Instead of following the river further downstream, however, we just basically turned around. I was disappointed that we didn't follow the Tanana River a bit, but our Captain explained that it was usually too shallow to go much further up or downstream. Our final stop on the way back was an outdoor museum type of place with some old Indian and fur trapper cottages moved to the site and probably some reconstructed ones, but all of it looked quite authentic to me. |
Monika: Then we followed the Chena up to the mouth of the Chena river, where a caribou slaughter station had been set up. Back we went and stopped at an outdoor village. It had several houses pertaining to different times and different people, an Indian village house, an old trapper place, and farmer's cabin. |
Bob: Young folks, many of them studying at the University of Alaska and apparently doing these presentations as a summer job, discussed different cultures and showed us native dress and how certain tasks like filleting and smoking salmon were done. I liked that our announcer gave a short biography of each of the young students on our way back, discussing their birthplace, ethnic background, major at the University of Alaska, and future plans--gracefully done, I thought. |
Monika: We were divided into three groups with our guides, students from the University of Alaska from the different tribes. We moved from the different sides at the same time. In front of each house was a semi-circle of benches, loudspeakers and the guides plugged their microphones into an outlet and again, everything worked very slick. It was very interesting. At the end we had some free time to check out the caribou pens and the dog kennels. |
Bob: After a quick lunch we still had some energy left and decided to explore "Pioneer Park" to see what that was all about. It turned out to be an open-air museum somewhat along the lines of the "Skansen" in Stockholm, Sweden, in that it combined exhibits and artifacts from the pioneer era of Alaska's settlement along with actual tourist attraction businesses in some of the old buildings. There was no entrance fee, so we just walked in the gate and started wandering around gawking at the old riverboat, mining steam shovel, tractors, and so forth. |
Monika: In the afternoon we explored Pioneer Park an open air museum. They had the big pioneer stuff like steam shovels and even a riverboat. |
Bob: Historic buildings from Alaska's settlement period had been relocated along some scenic streets in the village. Although the facades and structures were authentic, many of the buildings had been converted to tourist sales boutiques, an old-time photography shop, an ice cream shop, and other tourist-oriented businesses. But there was also an old, authentic church that looked like it was still used for services. |
Monika: A little street had reconstructed old buildings that also were sales boutiques so that you could get your souvenirs right here. |
Bob: Integrated amongst the exhibits in Pioneer Park were several museums. The most exciting was the railroad museum because you could pay for a ticket and get rides around the park pulled by authentic steam locomotives! Unexpectedly, one museum focused on aviation in Alaska and had a wide variety of small bush aircraft and artifacts crammed into a small domed structure. |
Monika: There was an old steam railroad which I enjoyed, and finally an aviation museum for Bob. |
Bob: By the end of the day, I was simply exhausted and all to happy to crawl back into the car and drive to the motel for the night. |
Monika: That was all either of us had energy for and we were glad to go back to our motel. |