Alaskan Adventure - July 4, 2014 - Our Fourth of July

On the Fourth, we went to Nenana, Alaska with Ron and LaQueta Brown (sorry LaQueta 

if I misspelled your name), to have a cookout at Ron's daughters house. 

It is a pretty drive to Nenana and we did see "The Great One", Mt McKinley.   It was a little hazy but none the less, we did see it.  It is a very illusive mountain.  Some people come to Alaska for weeks or months and never see it.  The mountain makes its own weather and is clouded over most of the time. 

It is more visible in the winter we were informed.

    Not my photo.

 First we went to the festivities in Nenana.  

    Merse Memorial Bridge. (Train bridge)

Located about 55 miles south of Fairbanks on the George Parks Highway, Nenana is a former railroad-construction camp with a reputation far bigger than its population.

     Parks Highway Bridge

About Nenana 

Nenana is also famous as the spot where President Warren G. Harding pounded the final golden spike into the Alaska Railroad in 1923, marking its completion. Nenana was formally established as a railroad construction camp in 1916; surveyors for the rail line from Seward to Fairbanks originally created the Nenana Ice Classic.

Completed in 1923, the 700-foot-long (210 m) Mears Memorial Bridge was built over the Tanana River as part of the state's railroad project connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks. The bridge was the longest truss bridge in the United States and its territories when completed; it is still the longest span in Alaska and the third-longest truss bridge in the United States.

Nenana developed as a Lower Tanana community at the confluence where the tributary Nenana River enters the Tanana. The population is around 368 from the 2010 census.

 Each winter, a wooden tripod is placed on the frozen Nenana River, which runs right past town, and entrants pay $2 to record their best guess as to when the ice will break up each spring. 

The tripod is rigged up to a clock; when the tripod moves, the clock is stopped, signifying the start of Spring.  

The Tanana River officially broke up and the Tripod moved down river stopping the clock on April 25th, 2014 at 3:48 PM Alaska Standard Time!!! The Jackpot is a record $363,627.00.

When we rode the train to Denali, we stopped at the train station.  We didn't get off, so

 I was glad to get to go back and see this train station.

   The clerk dressed the part for the Rail Road Depot Museum.  1940's style.  We thought she

   was so cute. ( Used by permission )

                   Ron leading the way to the town's celebration of the Fourth.

    

    Then it was on to Ron's daughters house for the cookout.

It was a beautiful warm sunny day.  The sun still shines bright at night so no fireworks but we still celebrated.