Joan and Keith's Travels: Paddle Wheeler Cruise and Ice Museum

Fairbanks!

Lets Go For A Riverboat Ride

On The Discovery III

The Riverboat Discovery is a tour company in Fairbanks, Alaska which operates sternwheel riverboats on the Chena and Tanana rivers. http://www.riverboatdiscovery.com/
History
The Riverboat Discovery business was founded in 1950 by Jim Binkley, a former freight riverboat captain on the Yukon River. Binkley was approached in 1950 by Alaska tourism entrepreneur Chuck West, who expressed interest in a local river tour in Fairbanks, Alaska, and asked if Binkley could provide such a service. Binkley initially operated a small converted missionary boat, the Godspeed, on tours of the rivers near Fairbanks.
The company's first sternwheeler, Discovery I, was built by Jim Binkley in his backyard in 1955 to accommodate more passengers. Later, more riverboats were added to the Discovery fleet; Discovery II was converted from a freighting steamboat in 1971, and Discovery III was built in 1987 at the Nichols Brothers Boat Builders shipyard on Whidbey Island near Seattle, Washington.

Timeline

1898: Charles M. Binkley comes to Alaska during the Gold Rush, builds boats on the Yukon river.

1940: Jim Binkley goes to work as a deckhand on the Idler, a 62-foot sternwheel riverboat.
1942-1945: Jim Binkley is employed by the Army running freighting riverboats on Alaska's rivers.
1950: Jim Binkley starts a tour business on the Chena and Tanana rivers using the Godspeed, a converted missionary boat.
1955: Jim Binkley builds the Discovery I in his Fairbanks backyard; Discovery Igoes into immediate passenger service.
1956-1960: The Discovery I is renovated during the winter months to accommodate more passengers.
1971: The Discovery II is built on the hull of the freighter Yutana. Discovery II takes over as the Riverboat Discovery's primary tour vessel.
1986-1987: The Discovery III is built in Whidbey Island, Washington. Discovery III goes into passenger service on July 4, 1987, taking over from Discovery II as the company's primary tour vessel.
2000: The Discovery II resumes passenger service after being mothballed for approximately 10 years for renovations.
2004: The Discovery I resumes light-duty operation as a vessel for special tours and charters.

Present-Day Operations

As of January 2013, all three Discovery sternwheelers are still in operation. The Riverboat Discovery operates daily tours and occasional charters with the sternwheelers from mid-May until mid-September. In addition to the sternwheelers, the company also operates a sizeable gift shop at the landing from which the boats depart.

Current Fleet

Ship	Began Service	Tonnage	Length	Passenger Capacity	Passenger Decks
Discovery I	1955	34 tons	65 feet	150	2
Discovery II	1971	180 tons	116 feet	400	3
Discovery III	1987	280 tons	156 feet	900	4

What a Beautiful Day For a Cruise.

Here are Pictures of a Float Plane

Taking off & Landing While we Were on the Cruise

Crystal Clear Blue Sky Again!

What a View!

The Wheel Sure Moves A Lot Of Water!

Took This For Nicole & Cheryl!!!

Susan Butcher

Susan Howlet Butcher (December 26, 1954 – August 5, 2006) was an American dog musher, noteworthy as the second woman to win the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race in 1986, the second four-time winner in 1990, and the first to win four out of five sequential years. She is commemorated in Alaska by the Susan Butcher Day.

Life and career

**Iditarod Finishes**
Year	Position	Time
1978	19th	16d 15h 40m 30s
1979	9th	16d 11h 15m 32s
1980	5th	15d 10h 17m 6s
1981	5th	12d 12h 45m 24s
1982	2nd	16d 4h 43m 53s
1983	9th	13d 10h 25m 32s
1984	2nd	12d 16h 41m 42s
1985	Scratched
1986	1st	11d 15h 6m 0s
1987	1st	11d 2h 5m 13s
1988	1st	11d 11h 41m 40s
1989	2nd	11d 6h 28m 50s
1990	1st	11d 1h 53m 23s
1991	3rd	12d 21h 59m 3s
1992	2nd	11d 5h 36m 3s
1993	4th	10d 22h 2m 40s
1994	10th	11d 6h 7m 20s

Susan Butcher was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, a lover of dogs and the outdoors. She studied at Colorado State University and ultimately became a veterinary technician.

To pursue her love of dogsled racing and breeding huskies, she moved to the Wrangell Mountains area of Alaska. There Butcher began training to compete in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, a grueling 1,112 to 1,131-mile race through arctic blizzard conditions across the Alaska wilderness, which tests the endurance of both mushers and dogs over the course of one to two weeks. She spent two years working for Iditarod founder Joe Redington in exchange for dogs to build up her team. In 1979, she and Redington, along with Ray Genet and two others, made the first dog-sled ascent of Mount McKinley.

After placing in several Iditarods, Butcher was forced to withdraw early in the 1985 when two of her dogs were killed by a crazed moose, despite Butcher's attempts to ward the animal off, and thirteen others were injured. Libby Riddles, a relative newcomer, braved a blizzard and became the first woman to win the Iditarod that year.

The more experienced Butcher won the next race in 1986, and then proceeded to win again in 1987, 1988, and 1990. She joins fellow four-time winners Martin Buser, Jeff King, Lance Mackey and Doug Swingley, and Rick Swenson who won five.

Butcher married fellow dog racer David Monson on September 2, 1985.

She held the Iditarod speed record from 1986 until 1992, breaking her own records in 1987 and 1990. Her other speed records included the Norton Sound 250, Kobuk 220, Kuskokwim 300, and the John Beargrease Sled Dog Marathon. She retired from competition in 1995

Her accomplishments gained her substantial media attention in the late 1980s and earned her many awards, including the "National Women's Sports Foundation Amateur Athlete of The Year Award" and the "Tanqueray Athlete of the Year." She also won the "U.S. Victor Award" for "Female Athlete of the Year" two years in a row. In 2007 Susan was inducted into the Alaska Sports Hall of Fame as one of the five charter members in the inaugural class.

Illness and legacy

On December 2, 2005 Butcher was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia, which had manifested as a blood disorder three years earlier. She underwent chemotherapy at the University of Washington, and received a bone marrow transplant on May 17, 2006 after the cancer went into remission. According to her husband David Monson, "someone said this might be a tough disease, but this leukemia hasn't met Susan Butcher yet."

Butcher died on August 5, 2006 after fighting graft-versus-host disease and learning that the cancer had returned. She is survived by her two daughters, Tekla and Chisana, and her husband, attorney and musher David Monson.

On March 1, 2008, Susan Butcher was honored by the State of Alaska when, just prior to the start of the 2008 Iditarod, Gov. Sarah Palin signed a bill establishing the first Saturday of every March as Susan Butcher Day. The day coincides with the traditional start of the Iditarod each year. Observing the special day, the bill noted, provides opportunity for people to “remember the life of Susan Butcher, an inspiration to Alaskans and to millions around the world.”

Next is Susan Butcher's House!

David Monson Explains the Life of Dug Mushing!

Giving Some of the Dogs Their Daily Workout!

Next We Visited a Chena Indian Village!

The Chena Indian Village, a replica village in the area of Fairbanks, Alaska, gives tourists a taste of how life was lived years ago. Through the use of guides and native artists, one can learn about the Athabascan culture. The Athabascans are one of the five major native groupings that were the foundation of the early Alaskan population. During the time in the village, Alaskan Native guides would lead one through the different stations of the village. One can learn how the early natives did such simple things as fishing-they used fish wheels that basically did the work for them-and how to clean a fish once it is caught. Another station focused on the use of wild animals to provide food and clothing in the Arctic climate. One particularly interesting station presented information on the creation of a parka from animal skins. Beadwork added to the beauty of the parka. Speaking of animals, visitors will learn how the natives called the animals, cured the hides, and used them in a variety of ways. Other objects, such as a canoe made without any metal, will help visitors to understand a simpler culture that seems out of place in the modern world. The Geocities website notes that many of the guides who work in the Indian Village are also students at the University of Alaska. Despite their youth, they were very knowledgeable about the Athabascans, their culture, and their ways of doing things. Even though the Chena Indian Village is, in many ways, a touristy area, it is also very informative. If you have the chance, take a tour of the Chena Indian Village. It will change your way of thinking about what's important in life.

The Coastal Native Americans were probably the first wave of immigrants to cross the Bering Land Bridge in western Alaska, although many of them initially settled in interior Canada. The Tlingit were the most numerous of this group, populating most of the coastal Panhandle by the time of European contact. The southern portion of Prince of Wales Island was settled by the Haidas emigrating from the Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada. The Tsimshian emigrated during the territorial period from a town near Prince Rupert in British Columbia. The Tlingit were known to travel for more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south to trade with Native peoples in the Pacific Northwest. There was no standard currency of trade, but slaves, native copper materials, and blankets made of red cedar bark, and dog and goat-hair were highly valued.

The Coastal Native Americans believed that fish and animals gave themselves willingly to humans, and strove to honor the animals' sacrifice. They also believed that the bones of a consumed salmon should be returned to the river in which it had been caught—to allow for reincarnation—otherwise, the fish would reincarnate with deformities and refuse to return to that river. Coastal Native American society featured a complex system of property ownership with a mix of private and group property. Each household owned tools, objects, and food that they had produced themselves, while the clan owned names, land, stories, buildings, and most other property.

In the social organization of the Tlingit and Haida, status and prestige were negotiated through wealth. To maintain position, a man of high rank demonstrated wealth by holding a potlatch ceremony in which he would give away, destroy, or invite guests to consume all of his food and possessions. This was referred to as "paying off" the guests who had performed ritual services or provided support in the past. Those who received goods at one potlatch would typically reciprocate by inviting their former hosts to their own potlatch at a later date; such invitations would confirm their relative levels of prestige and status. Other important features of the potlatch were the recitation of family histories and bloodlines, transfer of ceremonial titles and possessions, and offerings to ancestors.

The mild climate and plentiful resources of the Panhandle allowed the Coastal Native Americans leisure time to devote to social pastimes, travel and trade. They enjoyed complex art, music, and storytelling, and their traditions kept an accurate account of genealogy and clan history. The painted designs developed by the Coastal tribes featured fish, animals, and mythical creatures in formalized patterns of black, red, and other bold colors. They decorated their craft goods, domestic utensils, clothing, masks, canoes, and ritual objects to signify ownership. The world renowned totem poles were carved at great expense to illustrate myths, to honor the deceased, and to imply the enormous wealth of the owners.

Athabascan Native Americans

The Athabascan Native Americans of Alaska's interior were hunters and inland fishermen. Most lived in small nomadic bands along the numerous rivers of the region. Endurance and physical strength were prized, and game was often run down on foot. Athabascans harvested salmon and hunted rabbits, caribou, and bear with the help of snares, clubs, spears, and bows and arrows. Periods of famine were common. Because they were seminomadic and hunted on foot, footwear was very important, and the Athabascans designed light and flexible snowshoes made of birch and rawhide. The Athabascans used birch bark from the interior forests to make canoes, containers, sleds, and cradles. Clothing was made of animal hides, decorated with porcupine quills colored with natural dyes.

Some Athabascan groups inhabited permanent winter villages and summer fishing camps. Most bands consisted of a few nuclear families and had limited internal organization. Leadership was acquired by warriors or hunters. Athabascans also gave potlatches to mark a death and celebrate a child's first successful hunt, as a prelude to marriage. Those who aspired to leadership were expected to host memorable potlatches, at which the would-be leader would give away all his possessions then prove his prowess by providing for himself and his family for an entire year without outside help.

Salmon Smoking!

Caribou! sur for over 10,000 years and how they adapted to village life and Western c.

Furs Were Highly Prized!

This Fur Coat Was Amazing!

Granite Memorial!

In 1985 Susan Butcher left the Iditarod Race of 1985 after nearly being killed by a sick and injured moose that she and her team ran into on the trail. The moose charged her and her dog team and started stomping and trying to kill the dogs, Susan and a five year old, scrawny, youngster dog named Granite, fought the moose for 20 terrifying minutes until another musher got there and shot and killed the moose. When all was said and done, two dogs laid dead, and 13 others were seriously wounded. Including Granite. After quickly returning to her home, vets examined the dogs. most would never race again and would be used only for breeding. Their main love of pulling a sled through the Alaska wilderness was over. As far as Granite, the vet said He would never pull again, and would be doubtful if he would recover and ever even walk again. Susan was devastated and almost quit mushing altogether. As weeks went be Granite lounged around the yard and regained his ability to walk. but not pull. As Susan would leave on her daily sled training runs with other dogs, she started noticing that Granite would mop and whimper as she would leave out for the trails, obviously yearning to go. After weeks of listening to his heartbreaking howls as she would leave on the daily training runs, she decided that he deserved to go too. So she would start out with him on the team but he would quickly tire and have to ride back in the sled. No matter how much he wanted to his body couldn't do it anymore. But instead of giving up and him, (since he had fought to save her live) she kept taking him, after several weeks, his strength and heart amazed not only Susan but her vets, and after several months not only had Granite strengthened enough to make the whole runs, he had moved to the front of the pack, as he was out pulling the whole rest of the team ! He was truly a unique and powerful animal, The next spring, Granite made history by competing once again in the race that almost took his life, but not only did he compete after the vets said he might never walk again, he pulled Susan and the rest of the pack across the 1,000 miles of Alaska wildness, to not only win the 1986 Iditarod but did it faster than it had ever been done, setting a new Iditarod record time !!! But Granite, didn't stop there he did it again in 1987, and yet again in 1988. Setting another record by winning the Iditarod THREE straight years !! Granite not only survived when all hope was lost he made history. Granite lived for another 12 years after the accident, altogether for 17 years. He died in March 1997.