Location: Approximately 28.5 miles northeast of Fairbanks on Highway #2 to Fox, turn right on Steese Highway #6.
When Italian immigrant Felix Pedro discovered gold in a creek north of Fairbanks in 1902, the rush was on. Shortly thereafter the bustling town of Chatanika was born and the valley grew to be home to more people than Fairbanks with a population of over 10,000.
Located at Mile 27.5 on Hwy #2, the historic FE Gold Camp was a 1925 settlement built to support local dredging operations that recovered $70 million in gold by 1957. The impressive Stacker Dredge #3 operated from the early 1920s until 1962, employing a large portion of the community. Athough it was largely destroyed in a 2013 fire, the dredge still looms across the road from the Chatanika Lodge. The camp itself is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Chatanika Lodge is a large cedar structure established in the late 1930s as a trading post to serve miners and trappers traveling to the gold fields or trap lines in the Circle mining district near Central, Alaska. The Lodge has a large screen theater room for showing free films on the gold dredge and the Alaska Highway.
Chatanika Lodge provides comfortable and cozy overnight lodging with a rustic Alaskan atmosphere, fine dining and live music on the weekends. They also offer dry RV parking. The gift shop includes furs, hand made diamond willow hanging lamps and burls. The museum features a 1955 Thunderbird, vintage snow machine and lots of antiques.
Held in March, Chatanika Days features the famous “Outhouse Race,” longjohn contest, pool tournament and snowmachine tug-of-war.
