Best Things To Do In Chicken

Look­ing for a music fes­ti­val dur­ing your vis­it to the far North? There’s one held every year the sec­ond week­end of June in the town of Chick­en, Alas­ka. 2016 will be the 10^th annu­al. Like any good music fes­ti­val, it promis­es good music, plen­ty of beer, and lots of fun. 

Tay­lor High­way (Hwy 5) is open sea­son­al­ly from April to mid-Octo­ber. Con­di­tions of the road can range any­where between good to poor and depend heav­i­ly on weath­er and main­te­nance. Keep in mind that there are very lim­it­ed ser­vices or facil­i­ties avail­able along the road past Eagle.

At Mile­post 69 you will arrive at the Lost Chick­en Hill Mine, which was estab­lished in 1895. It got its name because it held a pay streak that had been ​“lost” for many years. The area has min­ing his­to­ry that began before the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897 – 98. It is now pri­vate­ly owned and mined.

At Mile­post 68 Tay­lor High­way you pull off and enjoy this easy, 1.5 mile hike to an over­look above the remains of Mos­qui­to Fork Dredge. This dredge was shut down in 1938 after oper­at­ing for less than 2 seasons. 

At Mile­post 67 Tay­lor High­way you will find the Chick­en Creek Bridge. This is the site of a dredge that was oper­at­ed by the Fair­banks Explo­ration Com­pa­ny from 1959 until 1965. In an aver­age run of the dredge, it was oper­at­ing 24 hours a day for 2 weeks. At it’s peak, one run would bring in $40,000 in gold. 

A short 1.5‑mile hike will lead you to an over­look above what remains of the Mos­qui­to Fork Dredge, which was used as part of the Lost Chick­en Hill Mine. This dredge was shut down in 1938 after oper­at­ing for only two seasons.

Camp­ground, RV Park, and Cab­in Rentals. On-site restau­rant, gift store, his­toric gold dredge and muse­um, gold mine tours, recre­ation­al min­ing and gold panning.

Chick­en (pop. 21 in sum­mer, 6 in win­ter). This lit­tle gold min­ing town was estab­lished around 1898 and there has been min­ing in this area ever since. In 1902, this area was to be the sec­ond Alas­ka town to be incor­po­rat­ed. The res­i­dents decid­ed to call their home Ptarmi­gan, the only prob­lem was that no one could decide on the cor­rect spelling. They did­n’t want to be the butt of jokes, so the res­i­dents decid­ed to name the town Chick­en. From the…  ...more

Café serv­ing home­made break­fasts, soups, sand­wich­es, and more

This dredge is locat­ed at Chick­en Gold Camp and Out­post. The dredge mined on Pedro Creek just out­side of Fair­banks from 1938 until 1959 before it was moved to Chick­en Creek and oper­at­ed between 1959 and 1967. Mike Bus­by and Bernie Karl pur­chased the dredge and moved it and oth­er min­ing equip­ment down to Chick­en in 1998 as a tourist attrac­tion. It was put on the Nation­al Reg­is­ter of His­toric Places in 2006.

What to do, and where to quench your thirst or sate your hunger when prepar­ing to cross over the Top of the World. Or when you’ve just done that.

A short 1.5‑mile hike will lead you to an over­look above what remains of the Mos­qui­to Fork Dredge, which was used as part of the Lost Chick­en Hill Mine. This dredge was shut down in 1938 after oper­at­ing for only two seasons.