friendliest town in alaska? (Anchorage, Fairbanks: house, contractors, camper)

[bortstc37]

interestingly enough, i searched "friendliest" and "alaska" on the forum and did not find any threads directly asking this question (and i'm sure it's a question on the mind of many who might be thinking of a move).



anyhow, post your vote for friendliest town in alaska.
give some examples if you can!

[warptman]

Kotzebue!

[SityData]

Without any doubt - the answer to that question is:

Wainwright Alaska !!

I have witnessed and spoken with countless numbers of contractors that have worked all over this state; The friendliest village they all say - is Wainwright ! Each of the villages has its own reputation or personality and without any doubt - go visit Wainwright for an experience in what friendly is really all about.

I have lived in every coastal village from Kotzebue clear on up to and including Barrow. No village can compare to Wainwright for happy happy people so willing to share.

that just my 2 cents

Believe it or not - All these villages have 'nicknames' given by Inupiaq people(s). This is something one would not be aware of unless they were intimately involved with the different Inupiaq familes !

[heathen]

I'm going to make a wild guess that the OP wasn't looking for places like Kotz or Wainwright... Seems to me like the coastal and "hippie" towns would seem friendliest at first glance, to a newcomer. Homer always comes to mind. But really, most places here are extraordinarily friendly as soon as you get your foot in the door with the social structure of the town. Put another way, Alaskans tend to mind their own business (which can be mistaken for ignoring you), but respond very well to openness and friendliness from your end.

I'm more apt to list off the unfriendly exceptions to this: most of Anchorage, east Fairbanks, and the semi-suburban areas like Wasilla, North Pole, maybe Soldotna? These places aren't necessarily mean, just closer to "normal America." Those newish complexes of box stores and parking lots are like vortexes of unfriendliness...

[bortstc37]

there's one (smallish) city in alaska that has been described on this forum as much less friendly than most, yet my wife and i experienced an example of extreme random friendliness there: we started a conversation with a total stranger at a gas station, got invited over to check out their smokehouse, and were given a jar of delicious salmon strips. it was very lovely and unexpected.

these are the kinds of examples i was hoping folks would share!

[gobrien]

I can share a couple tales of Delta Junction:

A family from Texas was travelling around Alaska and their vehicle broke down in Delta, and they happened to run into one of the town's best self-taught mechanic who took them in and fixed their truck. They have been there ever since.

A man who had been severely head injured in a bad accident in California, once recovered, wanted to show his family he could survive on his own so he moved to Delta Junction but was living in a truck camper in the middle of winter, basically barely making it. The town doctor bought some land and built him a house and he is making payments on it now based on his income.

[Dusty Rhodes]

I suspect the friendliness was more resultant upon not being with a cruise ship group, 5 busloads of people inundating Talkeetna, each seemingly trying to outshout their ship mates. We received excellent service, discounts, extras and aid in getting a flat tire repaired. In the roadhouse, people went out of their way to come over and say "hello" and just chat for a while. It was a very nice experience.

[roadfamily6now]

Originally Posted by gobrien

I can share a couple tales of Delta Junction:

A family from Texas was traveling around Alaska and their vehicle broke down in Delta, and they happened to run into one of the town's best self-taught mechanic who took them in and fixed their truck. They have been there ever since.

A man who had been severely head injured in a bad accident in California, once recovered, wanted to show his family he could survive on his own so he moved to Delta Junction but was living in a truck camper in the middle of winter, basically barely making it. The town doctor bought some land and built him a house and he is making payments on it now based on his income.

I have to vote for Delta Junction. Made some amazing friends there. Great people always willing to literally give you the shirts off their backs.

[roadfamily6now]

oh you are looking for stories.

Lets see.
I think it was the winter of 1998-1999?. It was very cold! We had come back up to Alaska from a trip down to Montana and got homesick. Anyway, we left MT with $500 (really stupid) and made it back to Delta Junction with barely the clothes on our backs. Friends put us up (4 of us) for about a week while we sought out a place to stay. It was -30 when we arrived on October 31, the start of a very very cold winter.
Finally found a man through a mutual friend that was going out of town for the winter and needed someone to watch his place and take care of his animals. He let us stay on his property in an older cabin for free as long as we watered and feed his dogs and horses and kept his house from freezing up. Pretty generous since we were perfect strangers. We ended up staying there for almost a year. Great guy.
Eventually we were able to repay him by letting him cut and keep the hay off the farm land we bought a few years later.

Another time, (yes all the stories revolve around me), we were looking for property and our friends had just acquired 2 acres. They actually gave us one acre to build on! We got our logs from Bruce the Wood man on a hand shake and built our little 20x22 cabin up there.

There are so many wonderful, true people there.

[gobrien]

What a coincidence, my son was given land in Delta too from his employer.