Museum sights in Southcentral Alaska
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McCarthy
Most local services are in the hamlet of McCarthy, an erstwhile ghost town so funky and cool you'll want to haunt the place yourself. Facing the Kennicott Glacier's terminal moraine and just a stone's throw from the river, the tiny community is a car-free idyll, where the handful of gravel roads wind past rotting cabins and lovingly restored boomtown-era buildings.
Alas, in the past few years the place has been 'discovered,' but the summer population still hits only about 200, and just a quarter stick it out for the winter.
Once you've crossed the Kennicott River on the footbridge, follow the road across another footbridge and about half a mile further to the unstaffed McC…
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Iditarod Trail Headquarters
Near Wasilla, Knik boasts a rich sled-dog history, since it's the home of many Alaskan mushers and checkpoint 4 on the route. For more information about this uniquely Alaskan race, stop in at Iditarod Trail Headquarters. The log-cabin museum's most unusual exhibit is Togo, the famous sled dog that led his team across trackless Norton Sound to deliver serum to diphtheria-threatened Nome in 1925 - a journey that gave rise to today's Iditarod.
He's been stuffed and is now on display. Outside, you can get a short sled-dog ride (around US$10, from 09:00 to 17:00) on a wheeled dogsled. The Iditarod, a famous 1100-mile dogsled race to Nome, begins in Anchorage - but only for the…
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Remembering Old Valdez Annex
Operated by the Valdez Museum, the Remembering Old Valdez Annex is dominated by a scale model of the Old Valdez township. Each home destroyed in the Good Friday Earthquake has been painstakingly restored in miniature, with the family's name in front. Other exhibits on the earthquake and subsequent tsunamis and fires are moving, but none are as heart-wrenching as the recordings of ham-radio operators communicating across the Sound as the quake wore on.
This is a fitting memorial to the lives and countless memories lost on Valdez' darkest day.
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Colony House Museum
The thought-provoking Colony House Museum was a home built in 1935 during the original settlement of Palmer and its eight rooms are still furnished with artifacts and stories from that era. To bring the living-room piano to Alaska, members of one pioneer family left behind their luggage and stuffed their clothes in it, the only way to make their weight allotment.
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Seward Museum
The eclectic Seward Museum has an excellent Iditarod exhibit, a rare 49-star US flag, and relics of Seward's Russian era, the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake and 1989 oil spill. There are also lots of amusing antiques, including an ancient electric hair-curling machine and a 'cow raincoat' designed for the oft-drenched cattle at the now-defunct Seward dairy.
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Prince William Sound Science Center
The dockside Prince William Sound Science Center has a few interpretive panels outside that, among other things, will help you untangle the fisherfolk's strange lingo, which is laced with words like 'openers,' 'IFQs' and 'sternpickers.' Inside there's not much for visitors save for an impressively enormous gray-whale skull suspended from the ceiling.
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Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum
The Alaska Aviation Heritage Museumis a tribute to Alaska's colorful bush pilots and their faithful planes. Housed inside are 25 planes along with historic photos and displays of pilots' achievements, from the first flight to Fairbanks (1913) to the early history of Alaska Airlines.
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Alaska Native Heritage Center
Come to the Alaska Native Heritage Center and see how humans survived - even thrived - before central heating. Spread over 26 acres are studios with artists carving baleen or sewing skin-boats, a small lake and five replica villages.
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Cordova Museum
The Cordova Museum has a small but intriguing collection that ranges from when the Russians arrived in the area to a heart-wrenching display on the Exxon Valdez oil spill. It will also store your pack during the day.
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Valdez Museum
The Valdez Museum is packed with displays, including the first barrel of oil to flow from the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and photos of Valdez being shaken by the 1964 Good Friday earthquake.
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Pratt Museum
The recently renovated Pratt Museum is the best on the peninsula, with exhibits on the Exxon Valdez oil spill and the dangers fisherman face on Kachemak Bay.
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Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum
The Maxine & Jesse Whitney Museum is devoted to Alaska Native culture and Alaskan wildlife, and features ivory and baleen artwork and natural-history displays.
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Anchorage Museum of History & Art
Anchorage Museum of History & Art is Alaska's crowning cultural experience. A $75 million renovation that doubled its size was completed in 2009.
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Imaginarium Science Discovery Center
This award-winning center features creative, hands-on exhibits that explain the northern lights, earthquakes, oil exploration and other Alaskan topics.
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Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center
Intriguing wildlife exhibits are found at the free Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center.
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Ilanka Cultural Center
The Ilanka Cultural Center has a small but high-quality collection of Alaska Native art.
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