Hear and see some of the fascinating history of cycling (human-powered, with the number of wheels ranging from one to four) behind Jessica Cherry and Frank Soos’ new anthology, Wheels on Ice: Stories of Cycling in Alaska (University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln, 2022). This book starts with reprints of three of the gold rush stories from Terrence Cole’s 1989 magazine insert, then picks up again with the advent of mountain biking and then fat tires in the 1980s and 1990s. The final section of the book features contemporary essays by Alaskan authors, and the social and environmental history behind many of these stories will be discussed in this talk. Free. Registration required.

Jessica Cherry is a geoscientist, writer, and commercial airline pilot living in Anchorage, Alaska. She currently serves as the NOAA’s Regional Climate Services Director for Alaska and is a 2022 Rasmuson Foundation awardee for literary arts. She was a top-100 finalist for the NASA Astronaut program in both 2012 and 2016 and is at work on an aviation-themed memoir.

Photo Credit: Children in Wales, Alaska, riding a wooden tricycle, ca. 1913-1939. Gonda Winkler Collection, Anchorage Museum, B1992.19.61.

Cook Inlet Historical Society Lecture Series: 125 Years of Cycling in Alaska