Anderson, AK

Anderson, pop 370, is a little town about an hour South of here, along the highway to Denali and to Anchorage. There is no gas station, no grocery store, really not a whole lot going on there.

In March of 2007, the city took the idea of a group of high school students to give away land in a modernized form of homesteading. 26 parcels of about an acre each were made available on a first-come, first-serve basis to anyone who was willing to develop it and build on it within three years. The city is putting a road through the lots, and they have power and phone infrastructure. They do not have municipal water, but no-one in Anderson does (they all have wells, as we do here in Ester, where I live). My landlords went and got one. They told me that the line of people who camped out outside city hall before the morning of the giveaway was on the order of a hundred people. A hundred people? For free land? Well, to be honest it is poor land, and an hour from Fairbanks, and not even near the City Center of Anderson. The lots are really worth only about $10k. Still, they got one and now, at the end of the first summer, they have their lot cleared, their wood cut, their power poles up, and their well in.

Dan and I went to visit them down there today, their last day of work before they quit for Winter. It was a beautiful drive, with all of the Fall colors exploding. OK it's not as beautiful as the Appalachian Falls, but do they have moose? Do they? No, they do not.

Here I am with Savannah. Isn't she cute?


By the way, I am now accepting votes for where I should put my tickets for the Nenana Ice Classic! Send me your guess for when the Tanana River ice will break up next Spring!