STRANGE Stunning Places in Alaska

FROM ABANDONED ISLANDS ; TO OLD SCHOOL MINES ; THESE ARE 10 STUNNING PLACES IN ALASKA

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4. HAARP Research Station

HAARP. The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program was a program created by the U.S. Air Force, Navy and DARPA.


What is it ? Or more accurately, what WAS it? The program was all about studying and analyzing the ionosphere, with the ultimate goal being great enhancement of radio communications and surveillance. The facility is located near Gakona, Alaska and day to day operations were sometimes given to the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
Now this is where I tell you, if you feel like you are missing some conspiracy in your life, check out this video…. And make sure there are no guys in black suits outside of your house !


3.Kennecott
Kennecott is one of the more famous places in Alaska and it earned its place on the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. This mining camp got its name from the nearby Kennicott Glacier, though it is spelled differently due to a clerical error.
By 1916, there were five mines operating in the area, the Bonanza, Jumbo, Mother Lode, Erie and Glacier, combined, they produced copper valued at $32.4 million a year. In today's money, we are talking about $750 million.


One by one, the mines dried up, and on Nov 10, 1938, Kennecott became a ghost town as the last train left the station.


The camp was left abandoned for about 30 years, with only a family of three keeping watch over everything. The plans were to demolish it all, but that failed too. Locals are happy that the historic buildings have been preserved, and many people that took items from the buildings returned them to the museum. Nice !


2. Ice Caves


Back to the nature people ! Alaska has some fantastic ice caves, with the most famous being the Mendenhall Glacier Caves !


The Mendenhall Glacier spans about 13.6 miles (22km), and is part of a protected recreational area. The massive glacier offers amazing views up top, but some people are more interested in what’s underneath !


Glacier caves are usually created by melting ice that finds its way underneath the ice, creating a stream. Beware, glacier caves are not the most stable, there are many examples of collapses, and disappearances of passageways all together.

There are so many awesomely strange places in Alaska, it was hard to fit them all in one video, heck, there should be a video exclusively for the Aleutian Islands, here are some of the places that found their way into the honorable mentions,
First up we have the igloo city hotel, well it was supposed to be a hotel, but the project failed… multiple times, with multiple owners !

Next up we have the Atka B-24D Liberator plane wreck, in 2008, the site became part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Monument.


Have you ever wanted to explore some permafrost ? The Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory has made that possible with their Permafrost Tunnel ! Located near Fairbanks, this facility is pretty much one of a kind


If you are feeling like hiking the Alaskan Wilderness, a la “Into the Wild”, the first place you need to go is Christopher McCandless “Magic Bus”, just know that the trek is dangerous and taxing, in 2013 alone, 12 people had to be rescued because they did not prepare well enough !
1.ADAK

We ave reached our final destination, the southernmost town of Alaska and the westernmost town in the USA. Translated from native Aleut, the name means “father”.


The island has history dating back centuries, but we will focus on more recent events. There was a military base there built in the 40’s, but by 1997, it was all abandoned. The Adak Naval Air Station was not a complete loss of resources, most of it was repurposed as the Adak Airport, however, there are some derelict buildings littered around the landscape.


The island as a whole has a few abandoned spots, like this church , or this fishing boat that just couldn’t take it anymore.


What's more interesting and beautiful than abandoned buildings ? The stunning nature surrounding them ! When you venture off the beaten path in a wild place like Adak Island, you have to be prepared for everything, hiking in Alaska is no small feat !


Oh by the way, Adak is also home to the smallest National Forest in the USA ! Comprising of around 33 trees that were planted there by Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner Jr, as a way to boost soldier morale.

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