Chicken AK

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To get to Chicken AK one must travel up the Taylor Highway from Tok. The first part of the road is paved and has huge frost heaves. It then turns to dirt and becomes very narrow with soft shoulders. When it rains the fine sand becomes very slick. It is barely wide enough for two cars to pass, much less two RVs. There are steep drops and no guard rails. They say one or two RVs roll off the side each year. Joy! It was clear and dry the day we passed, so we had little difficulty. When we met an oncoming vehicle we would pull over and slow down or just stop.




Everybody ought to go to Chicken, at least once. It's a pretty authentic Alaskan bush gold camp. Legend has it, when the sourdoughs were naming the town, they wanted to name it Ptarmigan, after the bird that is so common in the area. The problem was they couldn't agree on how to spell "Ptarmigan" and didn't want to be embarrassed. So they settled on "Chicken" instead. Sounds a bit far-fetched to me, but the locals swear it's true; all six of the year-round residents.



There are basically three establishments in Chicken: 1. the Town of Chicken/Chicken Creek/Goldpanner, 2. Beautiful Downtown Chicken/Chicken Creek Cafe/Chicken Creek Saloon and 3. Chicken Gold Camp and Outpost. All provide some camping service ranging from dry camping to 30A hookup. Each operates it's own generator for electricity. There is no cell service and no land phone in Chicken, although one establishment claimed to have a satellite phone, available for emergencies. All three do provide satellite based internet service. Mail comes by air three days per week. The road to Chicken is not plowed in the winter, so most folks leave. About a half dozen hang around and endure the -50F winter temperatures. They have a functioning fire department, although there has never been a call. They have a drill and start up the pumper once a year to make sure it is working.



Chicken is also home to the Pedro Gold Dredge. A dredge is a gigantic gold mining machine. It scoops up ore in a bucket train up front, processes the ore in its belly and extracts the gold, and spits the tailings out the back end. It floats in a creek of its own making and gradually moves forward as the ore is extracted. The Pedro Dredge originally operated on Pedro Creek north of Fairbanks in 1938. In 1958 the the Pedro was moved to Chicken Creek, where it operated until 1967.