Alaska's Roadhouses Have A Storied History

Summit Roadhouse at the top of Thompson Pass in Alaska is now long-gone. 

Alaska's roadhouses had their origins as tents along the trail. The earliest roadhouses were replaced by shacks, and rough cabins. Some of them eventually went on to become two-story, relatively substantial buildings.

But this one at the top of Thompson Pass looks like it was made of rocks. Eventually, this roadhouse was covered over with old crates from the Alaska Commercial Company, in a desperate effort to keep out the cold and snow.

The roadhouses of the Richardson Highway were roughly 10 miles apart; a day's walking distance. The Thompson Pass section of the trail is cold, windswept, and often blanketed with a dense fog, winter and summer. You can see the tattered and frayed cloth around the edges of the building -- beaten by the high, glacial mountain winds.