Follow Alaska's Trails -- On Your Own -- With Bearfoot Travel Magazines

Maps Of Alaska's Glenn Highway & Its Communities By Bearfoot

The Glenn Highway Starts In Anchorage & Continues To Glennallen

Map of Alaska's Glenn Highway
Map of Palmer & Butte on the Glenn Highway
and Old Glenn Highway in Alaska



Share this post

Bearfoot Guides Looks At The Log Cabins Of Talkeetna, Alaska

Beautiful log cabin building with squared notching
Front porch of a Talkeetna log cabin, near Anchorage, Alaska.

From Bearfoot: Where To See Log Cabins In Alaska: Talkeetna Is A Log Cabin Town Near Anchorage

Only two hours north of Anchorage, off the Parks Highway, this little railroad town was isolated for many years.
One of Talkeetna's historic cabins.
This historic 2-story log cabin in Talkeetna is also a "house museum."
It's at the confluence of the Susitna, Chulitna and Talkeetna Rivers. It got its start in 1915, at the same time as Anchorage, and for the same reason: to help build the new Alaska Railroad that ran from the ocean, at Seward, up to the Interior town of Fairbanks.

Log cabin in historic Alaska riverfront village
Tom Weatherbell's Talkeetna cabin.

Anchorage eventually became Alaska's largest city. Talkeetna remained a quiet trading, trapping, and railroading town. It remained off the road system for many years. Its buildings reflect that. They're a mix of authentic railroad buildings and little log cabins.

Almost all of them are right where they were built. And the Talkeetna Historical Society has done a good job of putting up signs and placards telling you their history.

"Old" Talkeetna barn 



Same barn after reconstruction.
Talkeetna people take their role of guarding the town's historic buildings very seriously. Here, for example, an old barn behind the Talkeetna Roadhouse is shown as it was several years ago, and as it is now. The red logs are the "old" version. Local people numbered all the logs in order, took down the barn, sanded it, and reassembled it, and replacing old foundations, and  rotting wood.

The respect with which Talkeetna people treat their cabins stems from a community understanding that log-building is a way of life. It's part of Alaska -- and part of Talkeetna, itself.

You can go into the doorway of the historic Ole Dahl Cabin in Talkeetna.


Share this post

Contact Us At Bearfoot

Bearfoot Travel Magazines A Division Of Northcountry Communications, Inc. Jeremy Weld Linda Weld Tim Weld 2440 East Tudor #122 Anchorage, Alaska 99507 ncountry@gci.net 907 320-1145 Fax: 1 800 478 8301