Chicken, Alaska

I saw the sign for Chicken before Kyle did. “Chicken!” I shouted out.

Kyle slammed on the brakes, thinking that I saw a chicken in the road.

“No, dear, sorry, the town of Chicken.” I explained.

“Are you sure it’s a town?” He asked. “Look at this sign, it says Chicken Community, I bet it’s a community of chickens! I’m gonna get out and do the chicken dance!”

“Yes dear. Whatever makes you happy.” I said as I smiled at his amusing antics.

Well, it is a town. A pretty small one at that, the total population in the summer is just 35, and in the winter it drops down to 12. It was originally named Chicken because the early settlers mistook the Ptarmigan (Alaska’s State Bird) for a chicken. Although an alternate story says that they did understand the difference between a ptarmigan and a chicken, they just didn’t know how to spell ptarmigan.  In any case, it has left us with a town where everything is chicken themed. We made the most of our short time there, we did the chicken dance, we mushed chickens, and we even got laid in Chicken.