Today, in our continuing visit to Alaska, we travel the Alaska Railroad from Fairbanks toward Denali National Park and Preserve.
The Alaska Railroad runs 470 miles between Fairbanks, in the middle of the state, to Seward, on the southern coast. The railroad, built by the United States government to facilitate settlement and commerce in the Alaska Territory (not a state until 1959), opened upon completion of the Mears Memorial Bridge over the Tanana River near Nenana. On July 15, 1923, Warren G. Harding, the first president to visit Alaska, drove a golden spike at the north end of the bridge. Harding briefly visited Mount McKinley National Park (now Denali National Park and Preserve) and then traveled by train 100 miles north to Fairbanks, where residents in their Sunday best turned out to greet him.
Today, the Alaska Railroad, now owned by the state of Alaska, makes daily trips between Anchorage and Fairbanks, stopping at Denali National Park and Preserve, where 17 percent of the visitors come by train. The trip from Anchorage to the park takes about 7 1/2 hours, and from Fairbanks, about four hours. Each year between mid-May and mid-September, Wilderness Express engages the Alaska Railroad to pull its extra-large glass-domed cars, featuring dining rooms and bars, through the picturesque countryside, often with snow-capped mountains in the distance. Guides explain to passengers what they are seeing. Among many interesting sites along the route is a marker near the tiny village of Nenana, identifying the site of the famous Nenana Ice Classic. Thousands of people each year try to guess the minute the ice in the river will begin to break up, with the winner (or winners) pocketing about $300,000. A tripod set on the ice stops a clock at the instant the ice begins to move.
