Wasilla, Alaska, United StatesEKLUTNA - WASILLA
Thunderbird falls
Ok so what do you do when it rains: we
stopped at the Thunderbird falls – lucky for us we got a free parking pass from
a lady. And as it was drippling rain Paul said that is why we bought the
ponchos – we put them on and it was super!!! No umbrella to carry and we were
dry – oh and the camera was dry too!!! Perfect. A walk through the forest to a
viewing platform: ok so what I don’t get is why you have to pay – as we saw so
many super cool waterfalls – that this one is not on the best 10 lists and the
others were free!!!
- Perspective: Exploring isn’t about where your feet can take you, often when you look at things differently you’ll discover something entirely new
- Culture: Alaska natives give names to places in association with stories shared through tradition. These stories tie the culture and language to the earth and embody an essential understanding of the lands that sustains them. The Dena’ina name for the Eklutna river is “Idluytnu” meaning “Plural objects River”
Eklutna historic Park
Was our next stop: ok it is not really
a historic park but two old Russian churches of wood – one in the typical
Russian style with the domes and the others they say resembles Noah’s ark (ok
you really need to have a lot of imagination). What the most interesting part
was is the cemetery: as this graves all have little spirit houses – like little
houses built above the grave – one was super nice as it was not the typical one
but looking like a real house.
What’s a spirit house?
- Eklutna is a Dena’ina Village, before the Russians came – the Dena’ina cremated their dead and the ashes were put in birch-bark baskets and placed in a tree or by a riverbank. They believed that would free the spirits to make their final journey to the “high Country”
- The Dena’ina began to convert to Russian Orthodoxy in 1836 after a small pox epidemic wiped half of the population. The church forbid to cremate the dead so they started to built spirit houses where the spirits would have a place to go and not bother the living until they made their final journey. As per their tradition the spirits would need 40 days to make the passage from the grave site
- Here in Eklutna Cemetery there are around 100 spirit houses – to keep shelter for the spirits, but as per orthodox tradition the bodies are buried in the ground underneath (which is hard work as there is nearly solid rock)
- Maria Ondola’s is a two-story building with glass windows (4-ft high) based on the girls dormitory Residential school which was operating in Eklutna from 1925-1945
Transportation Museum Wasilla
Ok what next – as it is not raining
that much, we decided to visit the Transportation Museum in Wasilla: and first
went outside which was a good idea as it was not raining and once it started to
drizzle we walked a bit faster and then headed towards inside before getting to
wet.
It was super cool as this was a huge
collection and on the first glimpse the outdoors looks more like a “junkyard” but then we had a 2nd look at it:
- The Trains: as trains was a big part of Alaska – we see here some too. What’s unique beside the Matanuska old station they have surveyer instruments and other tools which were used to built the railway. We saw one of those typical old “immigrant suitcases” – walked through an old caboose. Also there were a lot of old carriages and trains hanging around – you could spend hours to check them all out (if it does not rain!!) – and some of them were super weird we never saw some like them before.
- The bus train: no this is super cute: it looks like a bus and runs on the rails. This Rail bus was also called the ice worm and used to run between Whittier and Portage, in 1960/61 it did hourly trips – but it didn’t work out that well
- Old cars: yes there were some beauties hanging around like a 1949 Studebeker with super cool colors, or an old tow truck, how about an international,
- super cool was a 1931 Hupmobil Model U: as it comes from the area it is suspected that this vehicle was used by Al Capones gang members in a crime in the Michigan area, then it was hidden and later found in a remote barn. Sold in 1946 for 50 $, then driven to Seattle and shipped to Valdez and then driven to Palmer where it was used as a school bus until the early 1950s and then parked until it ended up here
- Lots of old farm equipment – like let’s get them all and put them there and let it rust: from wagons, walk-behind tractors, really old tractors with metal wheels and new tractors,
- Tractors and equipment which was used building the Alaskan Highway, I guess they used so many vehicles, that every museum has several ones, we saw them on campgrounds – they are like everywhere. But then some even had some facts on them and I still have no clue what a oil pull tractor is
- Yes we are in Alaska, so there are old snowplanes, old snow machines, some of the earliest kind of ATV’s – I mean those are some super cool machines
- We saw an old rusty drill from Nome
- The old firetrucks: they had a lot of old firetrucks hanging around some older and some “newer”, like the 1942 LaFrance from Sitka (when in 1976 the ladder collapsed killing a fireman it got retired), let’s not forget the State Trooper car (yes gine learned here in Alaska it’s not the police it is the state troopers)
- A few planes from the US Air force, some helicopters and one of them flew actually in the Vietnam war from 1966-71, of the H-12 Helicopter (it got used in the winter of 1965 when the frost was 4 inches thick on the telephone lines so they couldn’t use them, the helicopter hovered 10 ft above the lines and with 30 knots an hour cleared 300 miles of telephone lines
- The skis of the plane – this is always cool to see – as we don’t have them
- And in the land of fishing: here are a lot and lot of old boat engines, but then also chain saws (we both lifted some up – they are super heavy – I have no clue how they could even do some work) – and yes we also saw several boats (as this was the transportation before the roads – some of them of like them used during the Klondike gold rush) – Paul was super impressed with the original box shipped with an boat engine from the US Army from 1951
- Alaska colony Project (ARAC): as we visited Barns previously in Palmer, he we saw some of their equipment, their “Colony coins”, as well could read about their lifes
- Paul loved the collections of the little collecter-cars
- There was a lot about tele communication: in the 1899 it could take a year that a message was reaching Washington from an Army Post in Alaska and get the answer back, 450.000$ were set aside in 1900 to built a telegraph line, towns started with the gold rush and for all the private lines they required switch boards, several women headed north to work as switch board operators like Lillian and Cora Smith from Seattle who moved up here in 1906 (by the way Lillian was only 14 years old when she started to work as an night operator and her sister the day shift – they covered 24/7).
- There were also some old teleype machines from the 1940s, an old printing machine with keyboard from the 1950s (the linotype machine). And some old fire extinguishers from 1910/20
At the Donut king
Ok it rains and we need to get warm –
let’s get a yummy Donut have a coffee, get free wifi and charge up the
computers – and that is what we did for the next 2 hours. We also thought that
we are still a bit cold and decided it’s time for a cozy night in an RV Park
Rain records in Anchorage area!!
Lucky for us, there was still an
electric only site available in the Big Bear Park – so free hot showers,
endless electricity and internet – that means we don’t mind the cold weather
and our Camper will be warm and will have no moisture – perfect!!!
The town surrounded by mountains:
Wasilla
We decided to hang out here during the
rain – as Anchorage is too big for us and too stressful, this is still a big
enough town to have several stores and small enough, that you can see the
mountains, or go to a lake if the sun comes out.
- The town was established in 1917 where the railroad crosses the wagon road and named after a Dena’ina chief Wasilla
- With 10.000 people it is the 5th largest city in Alaska
- It is the headquarters of the Iditarod trail: a historical trail from the coast (Seward) to the west coast village of Nome
What to do on a rainy day???
We sleep in and have a lazy start: as
we have internet and a warm camper, it is perfect to make sure all is dry. As
it starts raining – we dump!! Perfect timing. Walmart is next on the list: yes
we discover on how we can keep our camper a bit more organized!!! Followed by
the Visitor info, where we discover that the museum is moving so it is closed,
still we walked between the few closed old loghouses:
- Here are 8 old historic buildings which got relocated here
- There was one short wooden log building: this was a sauna from 1940 and was for public use men on Saturday and women on Sunday
- And a red barn from the 1920s which was once a handy-man workshop, as he repaired everything, an 1917 shite school house and post office
Today we decided to spend the afternoon
interneting and planning at McDonalds – it’s warm we have nice coffee, charge
the computers and catch up on the diary/picture organizing.
We decided to treat ourselves and we
picked up Chinese at Carrs (wow that’s enough to have 3x supper). And then can
you believe it: there is blue sky and sunshine – we don’t even know what that
is anymore: so we head over to the little park and sit in the sun – it feels so
nice!!! Let’s hope that the weather forecast is correct and it will be like
this tomorrow.
Walmart – Camper – Meeting
The night we are spending with a lot
of other RV’s at Walmart’s parking lot – it is always nice to be part of the
big group of free boondockers. And it is so nice that we can sit inside and
feel warm from the sunshine!!! Perfect
2025-05-22