There's remote then there's no roads in the middle of no where remote. An Alaskan woman is opening up about growing up in a town with no roads. In fact, they can only get supplies by taking a plane an hour away.
Speaking with People, Salina Alsworth Peterson opens up about living in Port Alsworth. It's a town with less than 200 people, no roads, and was founded by her ancestors. The town has become a bit of a tourist destination (although the most action it sees is around extra 200 people at a time). It's certainly a unique way to live.
Flying to the grocery store costs $600 round trip. But Peterson is used to it. She's lived there her whole life. So everything is normal to her.
"This is how I grew up. It's normal," Peterson told the outlet. "I'm looking outside my windows right now and there are 3,000-foot mountains that I'm completely surrounded by... just wilderness and beauty," she says, alluding to the reason why there are no roads in sight. "It's just all rugged terrain and rivers and lakes that have to be crossed."
"Long story short, my great-grandfather came from Minnesota to Alaska because he loved aviation and he wasn't finding anything in the Lower 48," she said. "He wanted to do something more with it, so he came to Alaska."
Alaskan Remote Town
Her house is heated by a wood stove that keeps things warm.
"So on top of work, we're also going out almost every day to chop wood because it has to dry out for a year or so," she explains. "So you're chopping wood for the next winter."
"I really make sure we're stocked up on freezer things because that's so much easier than having fresh stuff go bad. Even though we buy our meat fresh, I freeze it," she explained. "I can't just run to a store and grab something."
They also go hunting and fishing for fresh meat.
"Beef equals moose. So anything that was like, 'Oh, we're having broccoli and beef for dinner,' it was actually moose and broccoli for dinner," she explained. "We still do our moose hunting, but we probably get a moose maybe every couple of years just because we don't need it as often."
Still, it's not an experience the Alaskan native would trade.
