alaska bush (Anchorage, Fairbanks, Nome: travel, work, hospitals)

[calicocutie]

what areas in alaska are considered the bush? is it just any small town near to anchorage or fairbanks? Excuse my ignorance thanks

[Rance]

The Bush is basically out in the wilderness. Miles from any town let alone a city like Anchorage or Fairbanks. May be villages or communities within a hundred miles or so. And even those are limited for travel in and out...let alone access to hospitals and what not. You might travel by boat, plane, snowmachine or dog sled to get in and out. You can drive yourself out to the middle of nowhere in some places and start walking. I would say pretty much the western part of the state is bush communities. The few towns/cities we have are fairly spread out with many villages or communities inbetween. Pretty much covers the whole state other than near the main towns and cities. Someone correct me if I am wrong!

[mal_flisk]

Nope, sounds about right to me. In general, the bush is considered to be unconnected to the road system. The exceptions are villages like Chicken, where they are connected in summer, but closed to road travel in winter. Can't remember if it's McGrath or McCarthy over by Copper Center, but it's inaccessible after October (late September sometimes, depending on snowfall.

There are larger towns that are not quite bush, like Cordova, or ecen say Seldovia, either due to lifestyle or proximity (even lacking roads) to other towns that are on the roads.

Nome and Kotzebue, Dutch Harbor, they're only accessible by plane, boat or, except for Dutch, dogteam. But they're a little more "cosmopolitan" (heh) than tour average bush community.

Not to say that they don't have their little quirks. I know a former service manager that was in Dutch and told his guys to turn down the radio. Either they didn't do it or it wasn't enough, so he shot the radio. No one got pissed, they just agreed he was having a bad day.

That to me epitomizes life outside the "civilized" zone. A willingness to see the other guy's point of view.

[Rance]

That's great! I work with a bunch of guys like that! Being on the slope is almost like jail. I can't take more than 2 weeks or I'm going mad!

[Las Vegan Cajun]

As the saying goes..."an armed society is a polite society"

[mal_flisk]

And most of the folks I know are armed. Liberal concealed weapons permit laws here.