Wasilla (Day 2)

On Friday we drove over to Palmer, AK, planning to drive up into the mountains to see Hatcher Pass and an old gold mine.  However, we missed our turn and found this interesting turnout where gold was first found in this valley.

As we were leaving, we saw the sign for the Musk Ox Farm just ahead.  We knew the farm was nearby, but didn’t know exactly where!

It is a picturesque Colony farm, where they continue a unique domestication project begun sixty years ago, and is home to a lively herd of sixty musk ox, from powerful bulls to frolicking calves.  

   

The non-profit Musk Ox Farm is dedicated to the domestication of the musk ox, an Ice Age mammal that once roamed the earth alongside saber tooth tigers and woolly mammoths.
Known to native Alaskans as “Oomingmak”, which means “The Bearded One”, this once-endangered animal produces an annual harvest of qiviut, the finest wool in the world.

Musk Ox shedding qiviut underwool in springtime, photo courtesy of John Gomes.

This website will give you additional information about the hand knitting that is done with the underwool:  http://www.qiviut.com/

More about the gold mine next...