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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A New Direction

Marshall and I went to Alaska together in 2010. The vehicle that we traveled in (Marshall's Sprinter) was so enjoyable that I bought one in late summer 2011, and have begun to make frequent trips around the west. Right now, Marshall and Bonnie are in Marfa, Texas (on Facebook, check out "A Month in Marfa.") Next month, we're going to begin and post a website of postcards between artists, dating back to the early 1970s. I'm probably going to launch a new blog in the next couple of months.....travels around the west, and my work on the archives of photographers L.H. ("Ben") Benschneider, and Robert C. Bishop. Stay tuned.

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.)

In Search of Robert Service

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