Historic Town of Chicken & Tisha's School House

Take a trip back to the gold rush era!

Daily tours of the Historic Town of Chicken & Tisha's Schoolhouse leave at 9am and 2pm during the summer season from The Goldpanner Gift Shop.

The Town of Chicken was once the mining hub for the Fortymile district. In 1886, ten years before the Klondike Gold Rush, gold was discovered on Franklin Creek and the community of Chicken was founded.

As the story goes, the miners wanted to name the town ‘Ptarmigan’ after the bird which is common in the area. Unfortunately, people couldn’t agree on how to spell the unusual name, so they settled with Chicken. The name stuck and so has the community, despite an up-and-down history of mining in the Fortymile district. Today, there is a lot more to Chicken than appears from the roadway. Guided tours take people through the Historic Town of Chicken, which is a living museum of Gold Rush & Alaskan Frontier History.

A daily walking tour at 9am & 2pm through town will lead people past the old schoolhouse where Tisha, one of the area’s most famous characters, once taught school, the Chicken Creek Hotel and the Chicken Roadhouse. Tisha, also known as Anne Hobbs Purdy, raised 10 children after arriving in Chicken from the Lower-48 in 1927. Purdy is famous for her amazing work ethic and dedication in educating the area’s native children. She is buried next to her husband on their homestead in Chicken. The book“Tisha” is a detailed account of her first year in Chicken.

In its glory year, Chicken boasted a population of around 400. Now, it ranges from 50 in the summer to 6 in the winter. Miners still work the nearby hills, hoping to find that elusive pay streak. Most use suction dredges but there are still a few placer miners working claims. Try your luck Goldpanning on our claims on Chicken Creek [Click Here] Massive dredges that were used up until the mid 1960’s to mine the creeks are found not far from town. They were abandoned 30 years ago by the F.E. Gold Company. A short hike from the Taylor Highway will take you to an excellent viewpoint where the Cowden Dredge (a steam driven dredge) lays abandoned on the Mosquito Fork. For more information on how to get there stop in at the Goldpanner.

You may purchase the following books at The Goldpanner Gift Shop or by clicking here
"Tisha" as told to Robert Specht by Anne Purdy
"Dark Boundary" by Anne Purdy
"History of Chicken" by Ingrid Seuffert