Mat-Su Valley Museums & Cultural Centers

Get a glimpe into the lives of Alaska’s ear­li­est pio­neers amidst arti­facts, maps, pic­tures and sto­ries depict­ing the rugged life of local gold min­ers, fur trap­pers, home­stead­ers and oth­er adven­tur­ers. The muse­um high­lights the his­to­ry of Trap­per Creek, Cache Creek Min­ing Dis­trict and Petersville Road. The Trap­per Creek area was set­tled in 1959 by a car­a­van of peo­ple who trav­eled from Michi­gan. Com­mon­ly referred to as the ​“59ers,” those who…  ...more

Trans­port your­self to the Alas­ka of the past in this muse­um and his­toric town site. Check out min­ing digs as you trav­el down stairs paint­ed like an old mine shaft. Then learn about the hard-rock gold min­ing in Hatch­er Pass dur­ing the 1930s. View arti­facts from Athabas­cans, learn about dog mush­ing, and walk through a his­toric dentist’s office. The main muse­um build­ing, once a com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter for bas­ket­ball games and church ser­vices, now tells…  ...more

Learn about this rur­al town’s native, gold min­ing, and avi­a­tion his­to­ry in this muse­um housed in a lit­tle red school house, as well as a num­ber of small­er, old rail­road build­ings. You’ll find out about ice roads and hors­es wear­ing snow shoes, how air­planes took over from trac­tors, as well as infor­ma­tion about bear traps, native arti­facts, and how folks sur­vived the harsh win­ters of the Susit­na Val­ley. Also, see some of the orig­i­nal trappers’…  ...more

Locat­ed on the world-famous Idi­tar­od Trail and housed in one of the two remain­ing build­ings from Knik’s orig­i­nal town­site, the Knik Muse­um fea­tures the Sled Dog Mush­er’s Hall of Fame on the sec­ond floor. The muse­um build­ing was pre­vi­ous­ly used as a pool hall and road­house, and now con­tains a col­lec­tion of cloth­ing, dish­es, fur­ni­ture and arti­facts from Knik’s ear­li­er days. Oper­at­ed by the Wasil­la-Knik-Wil­low Creek Historical…  ...more

Housed in a one-room log cab­in, this muse­um and vis­i­tor cen­ter packs a lot into its small space. Learn about Aht­na Athabas­can natives, explore min­ing and trap­ping his­to­ry, and check out the his­to­ry of the fas­ci­nat­ing Colony project — a New Deal pro­gram that brought 204 farm fam­i­lies to Alas­ka. You can also pick up tour books and maps, or ask the knowl­edge­able staff about area attrac­tions. The museum’s per­ma­nent col­lec­tion spans the development…  ...more

The house is an orig­i­nal ​“Colony Farm House” built express­ly for the New Deal reset­tle­ment project spon­sored in 1935 by the Roo­sevelt Admin­is­tra­tion. Vis­i­tors will learn the his­to­ry of the Colony project, often first hand, from descen­dants of the orig­i­nal colonists who staff the house and serve as tour guides. The house is fur­nished ca. 1935 – 45, dis­play­ing some orig­i­nal fur­nish­ings sup­plied by Sears and Roe­buck for the…  ...more

Ded­i­cat­ed to the tech­nol­o­gy that opened the Last Fron­tier, this muse­um is a gearhead’s dream. And it’s pret­ty darned inter­est­ing even if you aren’t into trains, planes or heavy machin­ery. Set on 20 acres, you can wan­der through old train cars, around com­mer­cial fish­ing boats and cars and explore old farm and oil machin­ery. Or head inside and learn about Alas­ka Pio­neer­ing women, gold min­ing and avi­a­tion. Only four miles from down­town Wasilla,…  ...more