Arriving at Tok, we decided to look into some of the local businesses that hadn’t been open when we where there last.  An antique dealer with gold prospecting as a theme for her shop wouldn’t part with her insulators, but told us that Rita, at Rita’s Campground might have some for sale.  Rita’s Campground was eventually found and two Armstrong insulators where bought.  Rita said these where used on the local lines.  Painting insulators was apparently a sales trick employed at one time. A dusty example of these featuring flowers was in the window behind the cashstand.  On the way to find Rita’s place Steve had noted that the offices for Alaska Power & Telephone Company were on the main road.  He suggested that we go back and visit them.  The women there where very nice and answered my questions about the local lines.  Yes, they told us,  two pair wire was still being used on the poles.  It’s a big pain in the butt to maintain, but they where being replaced by buried cable.   They had hired contractors who where currently working on the lines south of town [the ones we had just passed ] .  They gave us a few examples of local glass to take home.

Leaving Tok and rolling back into Canada produced a mystery for me.  As the poles and wires crossed the boarder toward Beaver Creek, Yukon Territory, I noticed that the glass insulators on the bottom crossarms became spools.  I hadn’t seen these before and wondered what exactly they were for.  I tried to look at them through the telephoto lens but couldn’t get a good spot on them before we passed.  Finally there was a well-chewed pull off a little beyond the Duke River Bridge.

We stopped and walked back to the bridge where we has seen some of those arms sticking out to one side.   This was a long drop and precarious climb out over the river, so I had to be satisfied with taking a picture.  Stopping at Burwash Landing’s Museum of Natural History gave me a closer look at these little insulators.  They where selling them in the gift shop as candleholders!  I bought two just to satisfy my curiosity.  Someone would know what they were for!    Apparently these came from the old lines that ran along the Alcan before it was rerouted.  You could see the old roadbed running alongside the modern highway at times.  Poles and glass remained in inaccessible places in the extensive vegetation.  I swear the upper arms of one stretch of poles had white insulators.  Would they have used milkglass on the older lines out there?  Couldn’t get a good shot of them.  Sigh…