Big Delta Historic District - Big Delta, Alaska - U.S. National Register of Historic Places on Waymarking.com

"Big Delta Historic District is located in interior Alaska, twelve miles north of Delta Junction and ninety miles southeast of Fairbanks. Maintaining the same boundaries as Big Delta State Historical Park, the district consists of 10.26 acres situated on the south bank of the Tanana River just above its confluence with the Delta River. The historic district includes eight buildings, five sites, and five structures possessing physical and historic integrity. These eighteen contributing resources reflect Big Delta's importance as a crossroads for travel and center for communications and supplies in interior Alaska. The most prominent extant features include Rika's Roadhouse (listed in the National Register on September 1, 1976), the barn, the McCarty Telegraph Station storehouse, and the Alaska Road Commission (ARC) ferryman's cabin. Restoration work, begun in the early 1980s by the State of Alaska, maintains the historic integrity of the district. Reconstruction and stabilization work was done to the roadhouse, barn, outbuilding, windmill, ferryman's cabin, vehicle scales, and springhouse...

Big Delta Historic District is associated with the development of transportation, communications, and commerce in interior Alaska, beginning in 1904 and continuing until World War II. On the south bank of the Tanana River and near the mouth of the Delta River the upriver limit for sternwheel steamboats operating on the Tanana a supply post opened in 1904. It developed into a roadhouse offering food and shelter for travellers, and in 1909 was replaced with the roadhouse standing in the district today. The site became a significant junction along the major overland transportation route in interior Alaska, the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail (later named the Richardson Highway). Until a bridge was constructed in 1943, travellers on the trail crossed the Tanana River at Big Delta on a ferry. The Alaska Road Commission (ARC) built a cabin for the ferry operator at the site in 1929. Telegraph service at Big Delta became available with the establishment of the McCarty station in 1907. From 1925 to 1947 the Big Delta Post Office operated in the roadhouse. During the period of significance, several names were associated with the area: Big Delta, McCarty's, and Rika's. Today a historical park, the trading post site, the McCarty Station storehouse, Rika's Roadhouse (listed in the National Register in 1976), the Alaska Road Commission's ferryman's cabin, and related outbuildings (including one reconstructed outbuilding and the windmill) represent Big Delta's significance in the history of transportation, communications, and commerce in interior Alaska." - National Register Nomination form

Street address: Richardson Hwy., Mile 274.5 at jct. of Tanana and Delta Rivers Big Delta, Alaska County / Borough / Parish: Southeast Fairbanks Year listed: 1991 Historic (Areas of) Significance: Event Periods of significance: 1900-1924, 1925-1949 Historic function: Commerce/Trade, Industry/Processing/Extraction, Transportation Current function: Landscape, Recreation and Culture Privately owned?: no Primary Web Site: [Web Link] Secondary Website 1: [Web Link] Season start / Season finish: Not listed Hours of operation: Not listed Secondary Website 2: Not listed National Historic Landmark Link: Not listed

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