As we drove onto the Ft. Wainwright base yesterday morning, Will remarked, “I sure have dragged you to some crazy places over the past few years, haven’t I?”
It was 8:40am, but it felt like the middle of the night. Snow swirled across the road and a thick fog hung over the base’s vast tundra. I had flown up to Fairbanks to visit Will for a few days, who is there for a lengthy trial. We had visited Fairbanks over the summer, but it was a vastly different experience this time of year.
Today, the sun rose at 10:41am and set at 2:47pm. The above picture was taken at 4:15pm. The short days have not really bothered me in Anchorage — perhaps because there is more ambient light? — but I definitely felt the difference in Fairbanks. Maybe it was the fog, or our dinky two-wheel rental car, but the whole day felt quite eery. 
I had some time to kill, so I hit the road north to North Pole. Not the North Pole — although it may have well been — but the City of North Pole, Alaska.
Welcome to North Pole, Alaska – where the spirit of Christmas lives year ‘round!
Upon driving into town, North Pole looked like any other small Alaskan town save for the candy-striped light poles.
But then, driving along the main road I encountered a little pole and plaque marking “The North Pole.“
This pole is one of two poles manufactured in 1951 as part of a campaign to properly mark the top of the earth. After a grand tour of the United States, its twin was pushed out of the tail hatch of an Alaskan Airlines DC-4 over the geographic north pole on the Arctic night of December 11th. After being discovered in 1972 in an old junkyard, this pole has been prominently displayed in its current location since the dedication of the pole on July 4, 1976.
Despite its name, North Pole is actually about 1,700 miles south of Earth’s geographic North Pole.
From the town’s website:
In 1944, bon Davis homesteaded this area. Dahl and Gaske Development Company later bought the Davis Homestead, subdivided it and named it North Pole. The name was selected to attract the toy industry to manufacture articles made in “North Pole”. This endeavor failed to blossom, but North Pole has continued to grow. There is continued interest to develop North Pole as a theme city, “Where the spirit of Christmas lives year round”. Many streets bear holiday names: Santa Claus Lane, Snowman Lane, Kris Kringle, Mistletoe, Holiday Rd., Saint Nicholas Drive, North Star Drive, Blitzen, and Donnor. Street lights are decorated in candy cane motifs and many buildings are painted with Christmas colors and designs.
Even after I passed the “North Pole” I thought, “Is that it!?” But then I rounded a corner and behold, it was Santa’s House!
The Santa Claus house, the “official” home of Santa Claus greets all visitors who pass through the city on the Richardson Highway. Live reindeer and Santa Claus himself are available for photographs year round. Each year the community starts the holiday season with a candle lighting ceremony and tree lighting event the first Sunday in December.
I’m not one for Christmas knickknacks, but I couldn’t resist a few ornaments and mementos. I mean, how often is one in North Pole, Alaska?
And then this happened:
I simply asked Santa if I could take his picture for the blog and before I knew what was happening, an elf had grabbed my camera and pushed me onto Santa’s lap. It. was. humiliating. Thankfully, there weren’t too many other tourists around to see this. (A moot point, I suppose, now that I’m sharing this photo with the blogosphere.)
Sunrise this morning as my plane took off — 11:10am.
Goodbye North Pole!
