Museum tries to get the word out

WASILLA — Leave it to an event called “Blast From the Past” to transport Sharon Weeks back to her youth.

“There’s that little one Chevfolet down there — I think it’s a ’55 — that’s my first car,” Weeks said while admiring Dick Wilson’s collection of pedal cars and tractors.

Among the two-dozen or so pedal tractors and cars he brought Saturday to display at the Museum of Alaska Transportation and Industry’s annual Blast From the Past event was the miniature Chevy, a blue-and-white coupe that took Weeks back more than 50 years.

“It must’ve been, like, ’59 maybe when I bought mine,” she said. “I had a lot of fund with that car. I was just walking across here and said, ‘Gosh, there’s my little car.’”

Blast From the Past features a host of exhibits and activities that scram Alaska, said museum executive director Sherry Jackson. Along with Wilson’s pristine pedal cars and tractors was an extensive display of World War II naval vessels, a tractor pull put on by the Antique Power Club of Alaska along with the museum’s regular exhibits.

One of the main messages Blast From the Past has for locals is that the museum exists, Jackson said. Although it’s been a fixture at the end of Museum Drive for years, trying to get the word out to Valley residents has been a challenge.

“We’re a hidden gem in the Valley and we want to get the word out that we’re here and we’re here to stay,” she said.

That sentiment was echoed by longtime museum volunteer and former board member Fay Palin.

“We’ve gone on the airwaves (of the radio), we put stuff in the newspaper, and I’ve often felt we need to have someone standing out on the road,” she said. “We’ve had people who have lived here in the Valley for 30 years who say, ‘We don’t know you’re there. You need a sign on the highway.’ Actually, we have two signs on the highway, but they don’t read it.”

That’s too bad, Palin says, because there’s a lot of interesting history and interactive exhibits to experience. Her favorite is the Homesteader truck.

“Back there in the main gallery, there’s a vehicle that was built by a man by the name of Al Gagnon from the Kennicott/McCarthy area, and he made it out of stuff the stuff he had on hand. It makes a very strong statement about what Alaskans are and we make do with what we’ve got. It actually runs.”

The Homesteader truck looks like something built by the Beverly Hillbillies, complete with a wood bench, floorboards and even a bed framed by old lumber. It boasts a 1911 Model T engine, a 1926 Model TT frame and a 1923 Dodge Bros. touring car body.

“There’s even a spoon in here somewhere,” Jackson said. “They had to make a piece out of a spoon. It’s a prime example of what Alaska is made of. I think that’s why we like it so much; it’s who we are.”

Opposite a wall display of vintage telephones — “Kids are amazed that you used to have to dial,” Jackson said — is the newest exhibit at the museum, a tribute to the fatal 1956 KB-29P Kramer 31 crash on Mt. Baldy.

The entire exhibit, which includes part of a salvaged wing and propeller from the military plane, was built by the Alaska Extreme 4x4 Club and donated to the museum.

The KB-29P with the call sign “Kramer 31” crashed Dec. 26, 1956 while en route to Eilson Air Force Base. All souls on board were lost.

Part of the exhibit includes several digital picture frames, which scroll through numerous photographs.

“My goal here is to start doing more digital frames so we can display more of our photo archive to the public,” Jackson said.

In the mean time, museum staff and volunteers will continue to try and get the word out that Valley folks can experience a little of Alaska’s imaginative history, Jackson said. And for the kids, of course there are plenty of large trains, trucks, planes, cars and tractors to check out.

And if you stop by today, Blast From the Past continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2269 or

greg.johnson@frontiersman.com.

What: Blast From the Past

Where: Alaska Museum of Transportation and Industry, 3800 W. Museum Dr., Wasilla

When: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., today (open those same hours every day during the summer)

Cost: $8 admission for adults, $5 for military and children ages 3 to 17, or $18 for a family.

Online: museumofalaska.org