The End of the Alaska Highway at Delta Junction

Delta Junction

Delta Junction is the end of the Alaska Highway (2), and it intersects with the Richardson Highway (4) that we have been traveling on.

 The Richardson will continue to take us toward Valdez.   The junction is named after the Delta River, which is close by, but it was also once called Buffalo Center, because of a herd of buffalo from the lower 48 were brought here in the 1920’s.

Just before we came to Delta Junction, we took a side road that went through the Tanana Loop, where the state has deeded 100,000 acres to farmers.  They are growing lots of crops that we would consider normal, but in Alaska, we have seen very little agricultural area.  Barley is the major crop, but they have oats, wheat, and pastureland, grass seed, canola, potatoes and field peas.   They have dairies, beef and pig producers, bison, elk, and reindeer, yak and musk ox ranches.

We stopped at the visitors’ center at Delta Junction and looked at a chain that was used between two bulldozers to knock down trees for clearing the land.  In fact, we saw this in action on the Tanana Loop.  We also looked at some machinery used to build the Alaska Highway and I know my brother in law can relate to this era of heavy machinery.

We also saw a huge mosquito “statue” – I guess in acknowledgement of their plentiful nature.  They really seem to be that big!