Getting Around Alaska

In remote Alaskan villages, people use snowmobiles—and even planes—to get to ordinary places. Now kids in one tiny town have a special way to connect with the wider world.  

Katie Basile

About 650 people live in Pilot Station, including Anastasia Tinker (front), on a snowmobile outside her school. 

Picture hopping on a plane to get to a movie theater or basketball game. That’s what life is like in Pilot Station, a remote village in southwest Alaska. The tiny town has no paved roads, so people mostly travel by snowmobile or ATV (all-terrain vehicle). They also use snowshoes to walk from place to place. To get to another village or a city in Alaska, most people fly on a special airplane called a bush plane.

Katie Basile

Many kids in Pilot Station use ATVs to get around.

Donn Gallon, a fifth-grade teacher at Pilot Station School, wanted to help students connect with the world outside of their village. So in 2014, he started the Pilot Station School Radio Club. Kids gather after school and on weekends to use ham radio, a special radio service for people who want to chat with others across the globe without relying on the internet or phones. The kids have spoken with people in countries as far away as Japan, Italy, and Brazil. “We talk about what time it is there, what the weather is like, what they do for fun,” says Anastasia Tinker, a 14-year-old student at the school. 

The kids in Pilot Station also tell people in other places what   life is like in their tiny village, located on the Yukon River. Most people in the village, including Anastasia, are Yup’ik Eskimo. Those are Alaska Natives who have lived in the region for thousands of years. The Yup’ik fish, hunt, and gather food instead of relying on grocery stores. Communities share their food at traditional celebrations called potlatches. 

Katie Basile

In the spring, especially in March, villagers drive their snowmobiles onto the frozen river to go ice fishing, catching fish like pike. After the ice melts, going out on boats on the Yukon River is a popular activity. 

Pilot Station students like to introduce their hometown to people in person too. For example, they enjoy hosting school sports teams that fly in from other places in Alaska for tournaments. They show guests how to get around locally. “My favorite way to travel is by snowshoe,” says Charles Heckman, age 13, who is also in the radio club. “But it’s also fun to ride around on snowmobiles with family and friends.”

1. Study Pilot Station’s location on the map. Why do you think it’s a challenge for people there to visit other parts of Alaska?

2. Which major transportation systems can you find in Anchorage? Why do you think it has so many?

3. Based on the inset map, how is the state of Alaska different from most other U.S. states?

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