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Over the Top, To the Border


Top of the World Highway, between Dawson City and the Alaskan border.

And, on the other side:

The road washed out during the summer, and they were still doing serious work (unbeknown to us). There was a ninety minute wait at Boundary (one building) a mile down the road, and then we were escorted by pilot car over the next thirty-five miles to the town of Chicken.  That trip took about two and a half hours.

And, why did they name it chicken? Because they wanted to call it Ptarmigan (the state bird), but nobody knew how to spell it.....And, ptarmigan are often called prairie chickens....

And, guess what? It was still raining/drizzling!

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Toad River Lodge, Saturday 28 August - POSTSCRIPT

A A collection of over 6,800 hats stapled to the ceiling throughout the restaurant....and growing. One of the stories associated with the place is the origin of the name....The Alaska highway was constructed in 10 months, 1942-43. One version of "Toad River" is that the engineers had to tow supplies and materials across at that particular point, and it somehow got bastardized from "towed" to "toad." There are many such strange stories and origins to the naming of places in Alaska.              (I mean, why was Denali originally called McKinley? (other than his recent assassination....he never visited the place.)