Giant rubber spiders. Boxes full of underwear. Dozens of hand-drawn cardboard signs. Strings of fishing floats. An outhouse covered in silver spray paint.
Welcome to the Chilkoot Charlie's yard sale, where all these could be yours, for a small price.
The notorious bar in Anchorage's Spenard neighborhood is clearing out its storage space, and with it, trying to figure out what to do with the decades of mementos that have accumulated.
"I'm trying to separate things that are truly meaningful from stuff that's just interesting," said longtime owner Mike Gordon, who announced his retirement and bar sale last month. The property is being purchased, and the bar ownership will move to a group of employees.
Gordon said things like photographs aren't going up for sale, but there are plenty of other items. Everything from old light fixtures, tequila dispensers, computer monitors and boxes of VHS tapes are up for grabs. A box of tighty-whities turned into sports bras was one of the more interesting finds, according to Koot's employee Adam Johnson.
"I've got more crap stored here than you could ever imagine," Gordon said Wednesday.
But some things are more valuable. Old neon bar signs went especially fast, according to Johnson. Replica paintings by Anchorage artist Betty Park depicting scenes from Chilkoot Charlie poems that used to line the South Bar are available for $400-$500 apiece. Gordon said he plans to donate the originals to the Anchorage Museum.
The yard sale continues from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. Johnson said there are more sales planned as the bar transitions to new ownership. He said with major updates expected in each of Koots' individual bars, there will be plenty of other chances to grab a piece of the bar's history as the sales continue.