• Chicken, Alaska

      by
      Rick Quinn
      Published on 06-21-2016 12:08 AM
      2 Comments Comments
      chicken
      Photo by Rick Quinn
      The town of Chicken, Alaska was founded by gold miners in the late 1800's. There are still active gold claims nearby, making Chicken, with a permanent population of seven people, one of the few surviving, and still operating gold rush towns in Alaska. How did Chicken get its name? The prospectors who founded the town wanted to call it "Ptarmigan", in honor of the Alaska State bird, but no one know how to spell "ptarmigan", so they settled on "Chicken".

      If you go:
      Chicken can be reached via the Taylor Highway, a seasonally maintained gravel and chip seal road that intersects the Alaska Highway 12 miles east of Tok. From Chicken, you can travel ninety miles further north to the small town of Eagle, Alaska, or you can travel east, across the Canadian border, to Dawson City, Yukon, along a scenic route known as the Top of the World Highway. Chicken boasts a general store, a tiny Post Office, a popular RV park, and historical exhibits, including an abandoned gold dredge.

      Links:




      Milepost 66.8
      Taylor Highway
      Chicken, Alaska 99732 USA
      info@townofchicken.com

      Mailing address:
      Town of Chicken
      P.O. Box 25
      Chicken, AK 99732 USA

      Phone Numbers:

      Information
      +1 (907) 505-0231

      Comments 2 Comments
      1. Mark Sedenquist's Avatar
        Mark Sedenquist - 06-21-2016, 06:04 AM
        A funny history for the naming of a town
      1. DonnaR57's Avatar
        DonnaR57 - 06-21-2016, 02:05 PM
        An early history of Chicken can be found in the book TISHA by Anne Purdy and Robert Specht. Anne was a teacher who came to the community from the "outside", and learned the native ways.


        Donna