CHICKEN, ALASKA

After the Gold Strike of 1886, the community of Chicken began to grow in leaps and bounds,  By 1903, this once empty corner of Alaska claimed a population of 400.  After this growth came the need for an identity.  The prospectors, miners and natives collectively decided to call their growing community Ptarmigan, after the succulent bird that often graced their dinner plates.  However none of the grizzley group knew how to spell it, so someone susposedly said, let's just call it chicken.  And so it stuck, drawing notoriety for its name and colorful residents. 

Chicken is about an 80 mile drive from Tok enroute to Dawson by way of Top of the World highway.  The town has four buildings including a post office that sends mail out by plane on Tuesday and Friday of each week.

Post Office

It is recorded that over 17 million tons of God was mined from this area.  There is still an active gold mining company in Chicken.  You can go there and pan for Gold but we did not take the time to do so, but we did buy a t-shirt and mail some post cards to family at the post office,  Also I had to hang a good ole Auburn cap in the ceiling of the local saloon where there were caps hanging from all over the world.