Upcoming Events
No ticketed events are currently listed for Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry. Many heritage operators publish schedules seasonally or run on regular open hours instead of dated events.
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About Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry
Visitors explore a compact 8,000‑square‑foot museum set amid 10 acres on Jacobsen Lake near Wasilla Airport, where historic rail cars, aircraft remnants and a collection of snowmobiles, agricultural machines, radio‑communication vacuum tubes, automobile fuel displays and the Whitney Section House are arranged for hands‑on discovery. The facility, founded during Alaska’s 1967 Centennial celebrations and rebuilt after a 1973 fire, offers families and history enthusiasts a focused view of the state’s transportation heritage.
History
The Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry originates in June 1967, when the Centennial Aviation Progress Museum Committee first convened under Jack Peck to gather Alaska’s aviation history for the state’s centennial celebrations. Within a year the project transferred to state control and broadened its scope to all Alaska transportation, eventually becoming the traveling Centennial Train of six World War II troop cars. A fire on 5 September 1973 destroyed 85–90 percent of the collection, prompting a relocation in 1976 to an 8,000 sq ft building at the Alaska State Fairgrounds in Palmer, where state funding of $80,000 arrived in 1977. After the Alaska State Fair announced in 1985 that it would not renew the museum’s lease—set to expire in 1987—the institution renamed itself the Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry and began seeking a new site. In October 1990 it moved to a 10‑acre parcel it had purchased on Jacobsen Lake near Wasilla, where it remains today.
The Trains
The 8,000-square-foot museum gathers historic rail cars and the Whitney Section House alongside aircraft remnants, snowmobiles, and agricultural machines across its 10-acre Wasilla site.
Nearby
The Museum of Alaska Transportation & Industry sits about 30 mi from the Alaska Railroad, an easy pairing on a south-central trip.
Where to Stay
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