Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum

Alaska's late development meant it skipped a technological step: Travel and mail went straight from dog sleds and riverboats to airplanes, without the intervening development of a significant road or rail network. One day towns were separated from the outside world by perilous journeys that could last a month; the next day, people could come and go in hours. But the peril remained. In the early days, Alaska aviators crossed vast wilderness without proper maps, landmarks, weather reports, or even formal airstrips. This museum on the shore of the Lake Hood floatplane base contains five hangers of their planes, most of them beautifully restored (you can sometimes watch restoration work in progress), as well as exhibits and artifacts from Alaska's eventful military history, films, and a flight simulator. Aviation enthusiasts shouldn't miss it, and anyone can get a strong feeling for that pioneering time. There's an aviation-themed gift store, of course. The museum's entrance faces the lake, not the road.

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