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ANCHORAGE |
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Wedged between the two arms of Cook Inlet and the imposing Chugach
Mountains, ANCHORAGE is home to over forty percent of Alaska's
population, and serves as the transportation center for the whole state.
This sprawling city on the edge of one of the world's great wildernesses
often gets a bad press from those who live elsewhere in Alaska - derided
as being "just half an hour from Alaska" - but it has its attractions,
and with its beautiful setting can make a pleasant one- or two-day
stopover.
By the time Captain James Cook came up what is now Cook Inlet in 1778,
in search of a Northwest Passage to the Atlantic, Russian fur trappers
had already started to settle the area, trading copper and iron for fish
and furs with the Native Americans. Though Cook was sure that the inlet
was not the Passage, he sent boats out in a southeasterly direction to
investigate. When they were forced to turn back by the severe tides,
Cook named this gloriously scenic stretch Turnagain Arm .
Anchorage itself began life in 1915 as a tent city for construction
workers on the Alaska Railroad. During the 1930s, hopefuls fleeing the
Depression came pouring in from the Lower 48, and World War II - and the
construction of the Alaska Highway - further boosted the city's size and
importance. The opening of the airport established Anchorage -
equidistant between New York and Tokyo - as the "Crossroads of the
World," and statehood in 1959 brought in yet more optimistic adventurers
The City
Travelers eager to rush off into the "real" Alaska tend to overlook
cosmopolitan Anchorage - a blend of old and new, urban blight and rural
parks - but there is plenty to see, and it's worth spending some time
here experiencing big-city Alaska. The city is laid out on a grid;
numbered avenues run east-west, lettered streets north-south.
Your first stop should be the Anchorage Museum of History and Art , 121
W Seventh Ave (summer Sun-Fri 9am-9pm, Sat 9am-6pm; rest of year
Tues-Sat 10am-6pm, Sun 1-5pm; $6.50), an excellent overview of the state
and its history told through intricate dioramas, alongside beautiful
examples of carved ivory and basketware. The art gallery is notable for
the works by Alaska's best known painter, Sydney Laurence, particularly
his monumental oil painting of Mount McKinley.
The rest of the downtown sites are more modest: the Imaginarium , 737 W
Fifth Ave (daily: June to early Sept 10am-6pm; early Sept to May Mon-Sat
10am-6pm, Sun noon-5pm; $5), has hands-on displays telling you all about
glaciers, the Northern Lights, polar bears and the private life of the
dopey-looking moose; the period-furnished 1915 Oscar Anderson House
Museum , 420 M St (June to mid-Sept Tues-Sat 11am-4pm ; $3), illustrates
early Anchorage life; and the Alaska Experience Center , Sixth Avenue
and G street (summer daily 9am-9pm; $10), presents forty minutes of
Alaska's best scenery, shot from choppers and beamed onto a 180°
wraparound screen, and the admission price includes a film of the
devastating 1964 Good Friday earthquake that leveled much of downtown -
9.2 on the Richter scale and North America's strongest-ever quake.
Six miles to the east on the outskirts of town lies the new Alaska
Native Heritage Center , Muldoon Road exit from the Glenn Hwy (May-Sept
daily 9am-9pm; $20). It is expensive and still finding its feet, but
provides an excellent introduction to the state's five main ethnic
groups. Each is represented by a typical house where Native guides
interpret their culture. Throughout the day, cultural groups perform in
the main auditorium where there is also an instructive introductory
film. The 4th Avenue Trolley runs here hourly from downtown for $6.
On long summer days it is better to stay outside, perhaps strolling (or
biking) along the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail that offers restorative
views of Turnagain Arm, or exploring the mountains and lakes of the
495,000-acre Chugach State Park , just fifteen minutes' drive east from
Anchorage. Challenging trails traversing the park include an often
treacherous scramble to the summit of the 4500ft Flattop Mountain, a
spectacular vantage point from which to view the city and Cook Inlet.
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