Chicken Alaska

We saw this moose in downtown Chicken, Alaska. Chicken only has around seventeen year-round residents, so, moose probably outnumber the residents.

With a name like Chicken, you just know this has to be a quirky place. It was another gold mining town, founded in the late 1800's and according to wiki, the name came due to the prevalence of ptarmigan in the area. They wanted to name the town Ptarmigan, but, nobody could agree on the spelling, so, it became Chicken instead. There is a small historic district and three modern businesses and that's it. There is no town water, sewer, or, electrical services. The residents have fun with the name and the chicken motif is everywhere.

We had dinner, bbq chicken of course, at the Chicken Creek Cafe. The homemade blueberry pie and ice cream for dessert was exceptional. The rest rooms were out back.

We just happened to arrive on Friday, before the weekend's  'Chickenstock', an annual bluegrass music festival. It's not really our thing, so, we didn't stay for it. By all accounts, it's been a phenomenal success for the town. They had to restrict ticket sales to make sure their limited services weren't overwhelmed.

There was a unique, improvised stage...

Touristy, tacky and corny, yes, but all good fun!