6/20/18 – Fairbanks

We didn’t just go on tours while we were in Fairbanks; we wandered around on our own too.  Here’s some stuff too good not to share.
Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitor Center near downtown not only has visitor info but also has exhibits from the University of Alaska’s museum.  

I’ve never seen so much beading in my life as I’ve seen in this state!  You can probably tell I’m impressed, because (a) it’s a traditional native form of art and (b) because I know if I ever tried to do it I’d have zillions of tiny little beads all over the house. 

As you wander thru the exhibits, there’s a passageway from one area to another.  To prove Alaskans have a sense of humor, this is painted on the walls:

Near the Visitor Center is a city park with an arch made out of moose antlers, which I think is cool.  What I don't like is that people have written their names on the antlers.  How rude.

I kept seeing brochures about the Dog Mushing Museum downtown.  I wanted to be more impressed than I was, but I wasn't.

The University of Alaska Museum of the North is divided into regions of the state.  The building is supposed “to convey a sense of Alaska…evoking images of alpine ridges, glaciers, breakup on the Yukon River and the aurora.”  (I’m quoting here; apparently I’m not familiar enough with this state to identify anything except blocks of ice.  I definitely don’t see the aurora!) 

Otto Bear has been greeting visitors since 1980

The very ugly table is made with Caribou legs,
Dall sheep horns, bear fur, and local wood

Blue Babe - a mummified steppe bison found in permafrost

Not too far away is the Robert G. White Large Animal Research Station (called LARS by the locals.)  The university is studying muskox and reindeer.  We didn’t take the tour, but wandered out to where we could see some of the muskox.  (We've already seen reindeer.) The baby one wandered over to get a drink but I think he was actually checking us out.  

Creamer’s Field National Wildlife Refuge is on an old dairy farm.  Supposed to be really famous for sandhill cranes.  The only ones we saw were taxidermy specimens. Think we got here a little too late for the migration.

More of Fairbanks here: Fairbanks