Chicken is a “com-munity” founded on gold mining and is one of the few surviving gold rush towns in Alaska. Gold was actually discovered in Chicken ten years before the famous Klondike discovery. It is one of the few surviving “goldrush” towns in Alaska and it is on the Alaska Register of Historical Sites. The population was 17 at the 2000 census.
Chicken was settled by gold miners in the late 1800s - they wanted to name this settlement “Ptarmigan” due to the prevalence of this bird in the area, but they couldn’t spell it, so they settled on “Chicken.”
Photo upper left: Joe & Irene practicing for the famous Iditarod Dog-Mushing Race with chickens!
Photo upper left: Joe & Irene practicing for the famous Iditarod Dog-Mushing Race with chickens!
Upper Right: the "restrooms".
However, despite all this history, we were really disappointed. These buildings seem to be of fairly recent origin and put here for tourists.
