Museum of Alaska

About 40 miles before you get to Anchorage a short detour takes you to the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry in Wasilla. The 20 acre site incorporates over 200 major artefacts including aircraft, construction and mining equipment, tractors and farm machinery, fishing boats, railroad locomotives and road vehicles. There is also a large indoor gallery housing a wide variety of exhibits. The photographs below just scratch the surface of what is on show, the museum web site can be found here.

To demonstrate the range of exhibits this barn had arrived just a couple of days before I visited, the museum plans to restore it to its original state.

Inside the museum building there are a number of motor vehicles that used to be seen on the roads of Alaska.

Some, like this one, have been restored.


	While others have been left largely as found.


	There are a number of commercial vehicles like this one. It can’t have been much fun driving this in the Alaska winter (note the wooden “ski” on the front wheel).


	Another restored commercial vehicle, note the wall being used to display a number of smaller transport related items.

A locally made device for moving people along the railroad.

Another vehicle I would not wish to have used in the winter.


	Suspended from the ceiling is this homebuilt KR1 'Seagull' aircraft, designed by Ken Rand it was one of the first aircraft with significant composite content resulted in it being incredibly small and light.


	Also suspended is this Bowers Fly Baby, it is a homebuilt, single-seat, open-cockpit, wood and fabric low-wing monoplane. I assume it was not flown much during the Alaska winter.


	Moving outside into improving weather you encounter this monster diesel once used by the Alaska railroad.


	A large number of other Alaska Railroad engines and rolling stock are displayed in the outside area.


	This “railbus” looks like a local creation using parts that were to hand. It looks like a bus body adapted to fit on a rail wagon chassis


	The museum has a number of small boats on display, these two are typical.


	There are a large number of motor vehicles parked outside, some examples are shown in the following photographs.


	One of the older exhibits, a Mack Bulldog Stake Truck from 1926.


	There is also a fair number of “emergency services” vehicles like these stylish ambulances,

A large number of aircraft and helicopters are on display, most of them will have served with local military units or been owned by local operators.

This Convair F-102A Delta Dagger shows the large areas of red paint applied to many military aircraft that operated in Alaska.


	This Douglas DC-3 similarly has large areas of the airframe painted red (however, it seems to have a new rudder).

Among the helicopters on display is this Piasecki CH-21B Shawnee which was commonly called the "flying banana" for obvious reasons.

The red paint man has been busy here.


	The museum also has this JB-2 Loon missile on display.


	This is a recent arrival and gives some indication of the work that can be needed before an exhibit can go on display.

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