When the land was cleared for this park in 1923, the whole town pitched in. From the beginning, it has been a multipurpose area, serving initially as both a runway for air traffic and a nine-hole golf course. After 1929, when another airfield was built, the strip became a natural barrier against forest fires that might threaten the downtown area. More recently it has hosted picnics with the mayor and special concerts and events needing large venues. The park includes baseball fields and ice rinks, monuments and rose gardens in an area one block wide and 14 blocks long. Daily users include joggers and dog walkers, kite flyers and picnickers. The summer gardens are well worth a photograph, as is the retired Alaska Railroad engine car at Ninth Avenue and L Street. Keep your eyes open for a small fenced yard housing a pet reindeer named Star VI; its owner walks her most evenings along the Park Strip. It's the sixth in a series of reindeer with the same name that have been kept there since 1962. Between Ninth and 10th avenues and A and P streets, Anchorage.
