Anchorage Daily News

POPULATION: 28 (2006)

LOCATION: On Paxson Lake at Mile 185 of the Richardson Highway, at its intersection with the Denali Highway, 62 miles north of Gulkana.

DESCRIPTION: A non-Native community whose primary residents are state highway maintenance personnel and their families. Most homes -- 96 of 117 -- are used only seasonally. There are five lodges with restaurants and bars in the area, several gift shops, a post office, gas station, grocery store and bunk house. The area has been a testing site for snowmachine companies for the past several years. Most income is generated during the summer.

HISTORY: More than 400 archeological sites indicate that this area has been inhabited for at least 10,000 years. In 1906 Alvin Paxson established the Timberline Roadhouse at Mile 192 -- a small cabin for a kitchen and two tents for bunkhouses. His cook, Charles Meier, later started Meier's Roadhouse at Mile 174. Paxson then built a two-story roadhouse at Mile 191, later adding a barn. A post office, store, wood house and small ice room followed. The Denali Highway was built in the 1950s from Paxson to Cantwell and Mount McKinley (later Denali) National Park. The 160-mile gravel road was the only access into the park prior to construction of the George Parks Highway in the 1970s.

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