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An Alaskan Treasure that Beat the Odds
In the heart of Delta Junction sits a small log building, peacefully
nestled among grass and wildflowers. It is the epitome of
Alaskan idyllic. It’s a rather unassuming building. No
neon signs no flags or banners just weathered logs and a warm and
inviting feeling. One’s first glimpse of the Sullivan
Roadhouse Historical Museum tells nothing of its remarkable past and
the epic journey yes journey that it took to get to its new home. It
should be obvious by now that this is not the typically boring story
of a museum coming to life. Rather this is a saga of an
historical building that survived intact against overwhelming odds.
It is nothing short of a miracle, and this story really should be
titled To Live or Die on a Bombing Range.
Built in 1905, by Alaskan gold miners John and Florence Sullivan,
the roadhouse was a very comfortable stop along a winter cut-off route
on the newly cleared Valdez to Fairbanks Trail. It was big,
warm and well appointed. Ma Sullivan made her guests feel right
at home. Business was booming and the sod-roofed lodge was never
empty. In the midst of this prosperity, fate dealt its first
blow. The cut-off, in an attempt to be a shorter route, went
straight over the top of several mountains. Many grades were
too steep to pass and travelers began to forego the short cut for
the flatter and easily traversed main trail. The Alaska Road
Commission was forced to remedy the situation and moved the winter
cut-off around the steep grades. This re-routing took the trail
4 and 1/2 miles away from the Sullivan’s lodge. In order to
stay in business, John and Florence had to get their roadhouse back
on the trail. So, log-by-log they moved the original building
back out on the trail. During the rebuilding, the Sullivan's
installed a metal roof, a rare site in the Interior of Alaska at that
time. This metal roof would eventually turn out to be one of
the roadhouse’s greatest assets.
Once again business boomed and the Sullivan
became known as one of the nicest stops on the trail. The log house was a
favorite among travelers. Amid all of the success, fate again stepped in
and by 1921 the cutoff was abandoned, as cars were regularly traveling the
long distances between Valdez and Fairbanks on the wide and smooth main
trail.
John and Florence left their roadhouse in
1923. They simply packed up a few personal belongings and moved to
Fairbanks. The roadhouse sat abandoned for the next 20 years, visited
only occasionally by hunters seeking shelter.
 With world war breaking out in 1941, the
government began building an Army base in the interior of Alaska.
The military land grab included the abandoned roadhouse. Again, fate
roared in as the old building was now sitting on the edge of the active
use Oklahoma Bombing Range. Threats from stray ordinance and fire
were constant, but against all odds the old log building hung on.
Over the years, fire licked at its door many times, but the roadhouse had
held its own in its battles with man and nature. Time had taken its
toll on most of the other original sod roofed roadhouses and they had long
since collapsed. Miraculously, the Sullivan was still standing.
Although the military made improvements to the structure, the metal roof
that had protected it from the elements for so long was beginning to fail.
The old roadhouse was slowly dying.
In the early 1970’s the Army ordered the
site around the Sullivan cleaned up. A man was sent to clean up the site
by bulldozing most of the artifacts left in and around the old roadhouse
into a big hole that was to be filled in with dirt. However, he just
couldn’t bring himself to bury the historical items, so he secretly hauled
them out and stored them in his barn. The roadhouse now empty of her
treasures sat alone in a harsh and unforgiving wilderness, slowly
returning back into the earth.
Fortunately, local historians had other plans for this old log house.
A congressional program to save historic buildings called the Army
Legacy Fund stepped in. Its last project, before being felled
by the budget ax, was to move the old roadhouse log by log in a helicopter
to Delta Junction, where it was refurbished and covered with a new
metal roof. It was a wonderful opportunity for its new owners,
the Delta Chamber of Commerce, to turn it into a museum for the public
to enjoy. The desire was to showcase artifacts and antiques
along with the history of the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail and the roadhouses
that operated along its route. Unfortunately, there were very
few items original to the old building. That was until fate
stepped in yet again. As the man, who wants to remain anonymous
that more than twenty five years ago defied a direct order and saved
the treasures at the original site of the roadhouse brought them out
of a dusty corner of his barn and returned them to their rightful
home for all to see.
The Sullivan is now the oldest original roadhouse left in the interior
of Alaska and houses the state’s premiere roadhouse museum with a
large collection of historical artifacts and photographs. Thank
you for coming to Delta Junction and visiting "An Alaskan Treasure
that Beat the Odds!" |
