Chicken Cemetery – Scribbling For Fun

As previously mentioned, this last Chicken trip Ray and I did something we have never done before. We hiked to the old chicken cemetery. People have been mining for gold in Chicken since the 1880’s. The original town of Chicken (now abandoned) is across the highway from the newer town sites. You can still take a tour of the old ghost town. The Gold Panner RV Park does tours twice daily.

But the old cemetery is some distance from town and not very well marked (as most old cemeteries are). It is located at the point where the Chicken Creek flows into the Mosquito Fork of the 40-Mile River. According to an old reference book, Chicken, Alaska, Then and Now, the trail could be found at about mile 68.5 on the Taylor Highway. There were multiple little trails along that part of the road. As you might guess, Ray and I ended up picking the wrong one and hiking all the way down to the creek and river through mosquito infested swamp.

After an hour or more of hunting for the right trail from the river, we hiked back up the hill and found the small cemetery. As many of you commented in on my photos, it was both beautiful, and eerie to say the least. There weren’t many markers left, most of them being made of wood.

Conrad J Henneman Died Jan 23, 1911 age 51 years

Many of you might be wondering why they would bury their dead in the middle of the woods on a hill. Back when the burials occurred, due to the mining in the area and the need for wood, the hill would have been clear cut. This hill would have also been one of the easier places to dig because it would have been less prone to permafrost. It also it up out of the flood plain, so they wouldn’t have had to worry about erosion.

Ray and I plan on going back next trip and making some repairs to one of the markers. The really unique marker with the wind chimes that is shaped like an angel is broken. One of the angel’s wings fell off.

Angel headstone with wing broken. Ray and I plan to go back and fix it.

In keeping with this blog post, my theme for this week is: memory/remembrance. During our trip to the cemetery it struck us how lonely and sad this little forgotten place was. And looking around the clearing, it was obvious there were other grave that the markers were long gone, lost to time.

This grave is not in the cemetery. It is located next to the Saloon. It is a grave of a little boy who died around 1949.

Thanks for reading. Have a great weekend.