Preparing for Northway

On Sunday, after gathering up food and et cetera supplies and maybe buying a cot to use when I sleep on a classroom floor all week, I'll drive my janky old station wagon to Northway, Alaska, way over by America's hat Canada. It's a trip I've been looking forward to taking for quite some time. 

  

I know next to nothing about Northway other than it is home to a runway that's often used by pilots who fly into Alaska from America's hat Canada and need to clear customs. Here's one heckuva nice view of their final approach into Northway's airport...

Photo courtesy of: jandd.org

Northway is about 5 hours from Fairbanks on the road system, and it's pretty close to Tok, the area's hub community. Northway has a small population. As of 2010, 290 people live there. More than two-thirds of its population is Athabaskan. According to this website, Northway is actually three dispersed settlements: Northway Junction at Milepost 1264 of the Alaska Highway; Northway, located nine miles down a spur road on the Nabesna Slough; and Northway Village, an Alaska Native community two miles south of Northway.

More from that website: "The nearby Tetlin National Wildlife Refuge area was long used for hunting by the semi-nomadic Athabaskan people, while the permanent community was established during World War II with the construction of an airport for the Northwest Staging Route, a chain of air bases through Canada. The village also served as a supply point for the construction of the Alaska Highway and in 1942 was named after Chief Walter Northway, an Athabaskan who adopted his name from a Tanana and Nabesna riverboat captain. Today, Northway is the aviation entry point into Alaska for most private planes. Some 700 planes clear customs each year in Northway, most arriving between May and September. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and U.S. Customs maintain offices at the Northway Airport." 

47 students are enrolled at Northway's K-12 school. I'll be helping out with social studies and English lessons while I'm there for the week. More to come...