The sign in this photo is painted on the end of the city water tank in the tiny village of Chicken, Alaska. Early gold miners in this remote part of Alaska, up near the Yukon border, named their town Chicken about 100 years ago. These hardy pioneers hunted ptarmigan as a meat supply, but they couldn't spell ptarmigan so then named the town after the bird it most resembles, the chicken.
Full time residents in Chicken, Alaska number 11, although when one takes in the greater metropolitan area that number soars to 23. Gold can still be found in the creeks around Chicken, and in the summer campers and miners give the town a seasonal population of more than 100. It is in east-central Alaska, 88 miles from Tok, Alaska, on the Taylor Highway, and 102 miles from Dawson City, Yukon Territory, via the Top of the World Highway. Both highways are only partially paved. The road, and all of the local businesses, close in winter.
Chicken has no telephones, no cellular phone reception, no flush toilets, and no electricity, except that which some individuals produce with their own generators. It's a very fun place to visit in summer. I've not been there in winter - yet.
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