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Jerry Pillarelli | profile | all galleries >> Travel and Nature; Sites by State >> US Travel; by Trip, by State >> Alaska National Parks Trip - Summer 2015 >> Gates of the Arctic National Park – Alaska >> Old and New Bettles – Alaska tree view | thumbnails | slideshow

Old and New Bettles – Alaska

Images of Old and New Bettles – Northern Alaska, taken in June 2015.

Bettles Alaska, located 35 miles north of the Arctic Circle on the Koyukuk River is basically a dirt airfield with a lodge. There is a National Park Visitor Center and homes for the few hearty souls that call the area home but little else. That being said the Bettles Lodge was very well run and the staff was incredibly accommodating. When smoke from a nearby forest fire grounded all flights on the day I was supposed to fly to the Arrigetch Peaks area to take a seven hour hike, lodge owner Eric instead took me down the Koyukuk River to Old Bettles for an unscheduled tour and Pilot/Guide Kevin reworked my trip schedule to give me a fighting chance to at least see the peaks if the smoke cleared the next day. It did and I was rewarded with a spectacular view of the area!

Old Bettles was founded in the late 1800’s as a supply depot for prospectors heading north to find gold in the Koyukuk River area. It became a ghost town in the 1940’s when its residents moved to the new Navy airfield seven miles upriver where the town of Bettles is located today.
The Bettles Lodge in Bettles Alaska
The Bettles Lodge in Bettles Alaska 		Supplies are offloaded just off the airstrip in Bettles Alaska
Supplies are offloaded just off the airstrip in Bettles Alaska		 The sun through the smoke at 11:21 p.m. above the Arctic Circle in Bettles Alaska
The sun through the smoke at 11:21 p.m. above the Arctic Circle in Bettles Alaska		 Plant life above the Arctic Circle in Bettles Alaska
Plant life above the Arctic Circle in Bettles Alaska		 The banks of the Koyukuk River heading to Old Bettles from Bettles Alaska
The banks of the Koyukuk River heading to Old Bettles from Bettles Alaska
A single spruce on the banks of the Koyukuk River near Old Bettles Alaska
A single spruce on the banks of the Koyukuk River near Old Bettles Alaska		 A storefront in Old Bettles Alaska
A storefront in Old Bettles Alaska		 Fireweed blooms in Old Bettles Alaska
Fireweed blooms in Old Bettles Alaska		 A deserted home, tools and a coffee cup still in place, in Old Bettles Alaska
A deserted home, tools and a coffee cup still in place, in Old Bettles Alaska		 An abandoned gold sluice box in Old Bettles Alaska
An abandoned gold sluice box in Old Bettles Alaska
A steam boiler left behind in Old Bettles Alaska
A steam boiler left behind in Old Bettles Alaska		 “Arctic Cotton” in Old Bettles Alaska
“Arctic Cotton” in Old Bettles Alaska		 An abandoned home in Old Bettles Alaska
An abandoned home in Old Bettles Alaska		 Fireweed blooming in a field in Old Bettles Alaska
Fireweed blooming in a field in Old Bettles Alaska		 An old Army radio left behind in Old Bettles Alaska
An old Army radio left behind in Old Bettles Alaska

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Guest 11-May-2022 11:59
That sluice box was built and used by my dad. I grew up in tone of the cabins in old bottles, which was my dads home as a kid, and which he helped to enlarge as a teen. It’s kind of surreal to see these pictures of my childhood home in this context.
Guest 06-Aug-2015 14:37
Once again, amazing.... I just love Alaska.
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