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University of Alaska Museum of the North Review

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University of Alaska Museum of the North

Address: University of Alaska Fairbanks, 907 Yukon Dr., Fairbanks, AK | Map It
Phone: 907/474-7505
www.uaf.edu/museum

Category: Museums/Galleries
Location: Fairbanks

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Fodor's Review:

A stuffed grizzly bear—8 feet, 9 inches tall—guards the entrance to the Gallery of Alaska. The collection includes the state's largest display of gold, Alaska native art and artifacts, and Blue Babe, a mummified steppe bison that lived 36,000 years ago during the Pleistocene period. Babe was preserved in permafrost (permanently frozen ground), complete with claw marks indicating attack by an American lion. The bison's remains were found by gold miners in 1979. The museum has several "please touch" items, including the molars of a mammoth and a mastodon, a gray-whale skull, and a 5,495-pound copper nugget. The sweeping curves of the building, suggesting glaciers and mountains, create a sense of wonder. The museum has become the most distinctive architectural landmark in the state. Inside, a two-story viewing window looks out on the Alaska Range and the Tanana Valley.

Cost: $10
Open: Mid-May-mid-Sept., daily 9-7; mid-Sept.-mid-May, weekdays 9-5, weekends noon-5

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