The Alaska Railroad is a Class II railroad that operates freight and passenger trains in the state of Alaska. The railroad's mainline runs between Seward on the southern coast and Fairbanks, near the center of the state. It passes through Anchorage and Denali National Park, to which 17% of visitors travel by train.
Pioneer Park is a 44-acre (109-ha) city park in Fairbanks, Alaska, United States run by the Fairbanks North Star Borough Department of Parks and Recreation. The park commemorates early Alaskan history with multiple museums and historic displays on site. The park is located along the Chena River and is accessible from Peger and Airport Roads. A waterfront path connects the park to the Carlson Center, Growden Memorial Park and downtown Fairbanks. There is no admission fee to enter the park, though many of the museums and attractions do charge an entrance fee. Concessions are open from Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, though the park is open year-round and some events are held in the off-season. Free Wi-Fi is available.
Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge is a 2,200 acre (7.3 km2) bird sanctuary, located within the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska and partially within the city limits of Fairbanks. It consists of wetlands, fields, and forests. The refuge surrounds the former farm of Charles Hinckley and later Charles Albert Creamer (1889-1974), a former chicken rancher from Washington state who moved to Fairbanks. Creamer saved waste grains from his barn to feed migrating birds. After Creamer's death, preservationists banded together to make the area a state refuge. The Creamer farmstead now serves as a visitor center and environmental education center, with the non-profit "Friends of Creamer's Field" presenting programs year-round. In the summer visitors can take a guided nature walk on the refuge trails. The refuge is open 24 hours a day 7 days a week. It is a multi-use refuge, and limited hunting is also allowed in certain seasons. In winter dog mushing trails criss cross the back of the acreage, while skijorers have trails in the front fields.
The Ferdinand Magellan is a former Pullman Company private car that served as Presidential Rail Car, U.S. Number 1 from 1943 until 1958. It is named after the Portuguese explorer. The current owner, Gold Coast Railroad Museum in Miami-Dade County, Florida, acquired it in 1959. The Ferdinand Magellan was designated a National Historic Landmark by the United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service on February 4, 1985.
The Abraham Lincoln, also known as Denver and Rio Grande Western Railroad Business Car No. 101, is the oldest operable passenger car in the United States allowed to run on tracks operated by Amtrak. It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.
The Harding Home is a historic house museum at 380 Mount Vernon Avenue in Marion, Ohio. It was the residence of Warren G. Harding, 29th president of the United States. Harding and his future wife, Florence, designed the Queen Anne Style house in 1890, a year before their marriage. They were married there and lived there for 30 years before his election to the presidency.
Pullman National Historical Park is a historic district located in Chicago, Illinois, United States, which in the 19th century was the first model, planned industrial community in the United States. The district had its origins in the manufacturing plans and organization of the Pullman Company and became one of the most well-known company towns in the United States, as well as the scene of the violent 1894 Pullman strike. It was built for George Pullman as a place to produce the Pullman railroad-sleeping cars.
Princess Tours is an Alaskan sightseeing passenger car service owned by Princess Cruises and operated by its Rail Division. Princess Tours runs ten cars a day from Anchorage to Fairbanks on the Alaska Railroad, stopping at Talkeetna, Denali, and occasionally Whittier. Each train consists of five cars and is staffed by a crew of 32 people.
SS Nenana is a five-deck, western river, sternwheel paddleship. Two-hundred and thirty-seven feet in overall length, with a 42-foot beam, she was rated at 1,000 gross tons register. Nenana was built at Nenana, Alaska, and launched in May 1933. Marine architect W.C. Nickum of Seattle designed the sternwheeler, which was prefabricated in Seattle and put together at Nenana, Alaska, by Berg Shipbuilding Company. Nenana was built to serve as a packet. She could carry both passengers and freight. Nenana had accommodations for 48 passengers on her saloon deck. Up to 300 tons of freight, including two tons in cold storage, could be carried on her main deck. A Texas, topped by a pilothouse mounted forward in poolboat style, provided staterooms for a portion of the crew of 32. Nenana could push five or six barges on the Yukon River; but, because of sharp bends, only one on the Tanana River.
The Superb was used as U.S. President Warren G. Harding's personal Pullman railroad car in a cross-country tour in 1923. After Harding's death, the car returned his body from San Francisco to Washington, D.C. Built in 1911, it is the second-oldest steel private car in existence. It had been used by Woodrow Wilson. In 1926 it was temporarily renamed Pope Pius XI for the Cardinal's Train from New York City to Chicago. Later it was an office car for the Charleston and West Carolina, Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Coast Line railroads.
Felice Pedroni, known best to Americans by his Hispanicized alias Felix Pedro, was an Italian immigrant whose discovery of gold in Interior Alaska marked the beginning of the 1902 Fairbanks Gold Rush.
The Mears Memorial Bridge is a truss bridge on the Alaska Railroad, completed in 1923. The bridge spans the Tanana River at Nenana and at 700-foot-long (210 m), it is among the largest simple truss-type bridges in the world.
The Van Gilder Hotel is a historic multipurpose commercial and civic building at 307 Adams Street in Seward, Alaska, United States.
The Seward Depot, also known as the Seward Station, is a former rail depot in Seward, Alaska, United States.
Hoben Park, also known as Arcade Park, Nile Park and Ladies Park, is a city park on the waterfront of Seward, Alaska. It is bounded by the Alaska Sealife Center, the Seward Depot, Railroad Avenue, and Resurrection Bay. The park's north and west sides have a decorative concrete wall, part of which is original to the park's 1923 construction date. The park has been generally restored to its 1920s appearance, although the north side has been shortened due to road widening. Construction of park formed a major part of the city's self-promotion as the "Gateway to Alaska", and was timed to be finished in time for the visit to the city by President Warren G. Harding on July 13, 1923, when completion of the Alaska Railroad was celebrated. The park is named for Hedley V. "Harry" Hoben, a prominent local citizen who was mayor in 1918–19. Hoben promoted the park and paid for its maintenance until his death in 1948.
The Masonic Temple was a historic two-story wooden building at 809 1st Avenue, near the Chena River in Fairbanks, Alaska. It was built in 1906, expanded in 1908, and further altered in 1913 and 1916. Its architecture was "eclectic Renaissance Revival", a style that had been popular in the "lower 48" United States in the 1880s and 1890s. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980.
The Falcon Joslin House is a historic house at 413 Cowles Street in Fairbanks, Alaska. Built in 1904, this American Foursquare two-story frame house is the oldest house in Fairbanks set at its original location, and was one of the first frame houses built in what was then a mining camp. The house was built by Falcon Joslin, a Tennessee lawyer who came to Fairbanks and financed construction of the railroad connection to Chena, the head of navigation on the Tanana River. Joslin's railroad ensured the economic success of Fairbanks, which was then competing with Chena as a supply center for miners in the region. In 1930 the house was purchased by Fairbanks Exploration Company, which used it as housing for executives and employees until 1960.
The Voyage of Understanding was a trans-continental tour of the Western United States taken by President Warren G. Harding in the summer of 1923. It marked the first time a sitting president visited Alaska and Canada. The tour took place during the final weeks of Harding's life, as he fell ill during the tour and died.
