Fifty States Of Scary: Alaska, Land Of The Midnight Sun

Flickr Creative Commons: lawrences lenses

Buckner Army Garrison, Whittier, Alaska

The years of the Cold War were very tense for Americans who thought that those damn Reds from Communist Russia were going to attack the United States of America directly.  No one was more afraid of that than those living in Alaska – the closest point in the United States to the Russia empire.

Had the Cold War turned hot – who knows how many other chilling ghost stories the Buckner Barracks might tell.  For now though, fifty years after the Army abandoned the buildings, Buckner stands as a bleak reminder of what the world once looked like post World War II.  Residents of Whittier will tell you of a ghost that likes to whistle, and of a heavy footed soldier walking the halls.

Loaded with asbestos, and structurally “bomb” proof, demolishing the structure would be a costly and dangerous venture, so the building that was damaged in the 1964 earthquake stands to this day, more a mural for brave graffiti artists, and likely the backdrop for local films.

With the threat of Russia building again, could Buckner be used once again as an ad hoc military installation.

The eeriest part of Whittier, is the drive to get their.  You have to go two and a half miles under a mountain threatening avalanche to get there, although the light at the end of the tunnel doesn’t mean the end of the uneasy feeling you get when you entered the mountain to begin with.