Outdoors/Adventure

Mighty machines celebrated at Museum of Alaska Transportation

"It was Mike Mulligan and Mary Anne and some others who cut through the high mountains so that trains could go through."

This line from the book "Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel," written by Virginia Lee Burton in 1939 could have been set in Alaska, when parts of our wilderness environment were on the cusp of mechanized assistance to settle the Last Frontier.

Planes, trains and automobiles were already in place, along with requisite dog sleds and snowshoes, but as the nation struggled to survive a Great Depression and a world war loomed, Alaska and a long roster of machines would grow to prominence.

Today, as then, those roaring metal beasts that fly, float or grind their way over and through our landscape are just as fascinating to 21st-century children. And there's a place in Wasilla that shows them off.

Since 1992, the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry has been a fixture of the Valley at its 20-acre compound along the Parks Highway. I found out, though, many of the exhibits were initially part of the Alaska Purchase centennial celebrations in 1967 — along with what was billed as a Centennial Train, a moving museum of sorts. Those who have been in Southcentral a while may remember the whole thing staged at the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer during the 1980s, when a band of dedicated volunteers started thinking about a permanent museum home.

Situated along active tracks used by the Alaska Railroad, the Museum of Alaska Transportation Industry (or MATI, as members and staff refer to it) is both a real-time and historical look into the partnership between machine and man (or woman). If something helped people go somewhere or do something and was utilized in Alaska between 1920 and the 1970s, it's here, sitting among the dandelions and green grass on the museum's vast property.

We discovered it one summer when our son was about 4 and I had spied a listing for the museum in the newspaper. "Come visit us," it said.

ADVERTISEMENT

So we did. And we've been fans ever since.

“A place of imagination and wonder”

The museum is not a fancy place, but that's part of the charm and attractiveness to families. Sherry Jackson, museum executive director, feels like her job is to ensure the artifacts from Alaska's past have their own future through the eyes of kids.

"There is so much room to freely explore and discover things," she told me after we spent a morning showing a bunch of busy boys nearly every machine on the campus. "The museum also provides many discussion points to expand kids' sense of imagination and wonder."

This part was true enough for our crowd. The boys, ranging in age from 6 to 12, responded to their first views of the museum property with wide eyes and utterings such as, "Whoa, what is that?" as they pressed noses to the chain link fence at the entrance, anxious to explore. For children used to fast-moving lifestyles, a return to a slower way of going places can be a valuable tool for the concept of quality over quickness.

Tractors and farm equipment rest in a row along the north side of the circular driveway, and a collection of civilian and military aircraft are parked to the south. In between is a gear junkie's mecca, albeit with a bit of rust and fading paint. But kids don't care.

The first few times we visited back when our son was a toddler and only interested in jumping on every seat he could find, we made quick work of the small indoor section in favor of the enormous expanse of outside space, filled to the fence lines with things that once moved people, dirt, or supplies around Alaska. But it's important to note that Jackson, in her tenure as director, has done an impressive job making over the interior of the museum in the hope it will provide a bit of educational background before kids venture outside.

President Warren G. Harding's staff car used during his visit to Alaska in 1923? It's here, along with an explanation of why the president thought it important to visit this remote territory.

How about a hang glider that flew from Denali in the 1970s, piloted by a thrill-seeking climber? That's hanging from the ceiling.

Older kids will likely spend more time reading about the history of Alaska transportation, from the arrival of colonists in the 1930s to the construction of the Alaska Highway shortly thereafter, and the building of the trans-Alaska pipeline, each an economic decision that shaped the future of the territory and state.

Learning by doing

Jackson and I discussed the unique "hands-on" tradition at MATI while the kids ran amok, shouting at each new discovery and bouncing from trains to buses to ancient snowmachines. One of the reasons kids find such joy at the museum, she said, was because museum staff and volunteers work hard to encourage their natural sense of curiosity.

"Kids hear so often not to touch things at a museum, but at a place like this, they need to touch to learn how everything works," she said.

The kids hopped on the back of a 1950s fire truck, curious about the long rubber hoses that rode atop the roof.

"Any guesses why the back bumper is so wide?" I asked them. Firefighters often stood along the back bench and hung on to a bar overhead while racing to a fire. I remember seeing such a scene myself, and I told them so.

Over the course of an hour, each child shifted gears, pumped imaginary brakes, and, in one case, pretended to drive us all to school in a little yellow school bus used by local youngsters in the tiny community of Chitina. At each vehicle, Jackson had a story of the people who made their living in tandem with the machine. Our visit made Alaska come alive, decade by decade.

When they were finally finished, we moved out front to the museum's sunny lawn for more playtime on the equipment set out just for that purpose, including a section of the trans-Alaska pipeline perfect in a game of hide-and-seek. Jackson says families often come to the museum for picnics, making a day of it, and I could see why.

Machines have come a long way since Mike Mulligan first fired up Mary Anne the steam shovel, remembering the history is important as we move into a technological age of building bigger, faster, more advanced machinery. May our children never forget the engines that got us there.

Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry

*Location: 3800 W. Museum Drive, Wasilla, along the Parks Highway

ADVERTISEMENT

*Hours: Open seven days a week Mother's Day to Labor Day, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

*Admission: Adults $8, children ages 3-17 $5, families $18, active military free with ID. An annual family membership is available for $35

Information: www.museumofalaska.org. The museum has a wide range of events this summer and fall.

Erin Kirkland is author of the Alaska On the Go guidebook series and publisher of AKontheGO.com, a website dedicated to family travel and outdoor recreation in Alaska.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
ADVERTISEMENT