In The Riverfront Town Of Nenana, Coghill's Store Holds The City Together In Midwinter

Coghill's Store In Nenana Is Heart & Soul Of Authentically Alaskan Town

Rural store in midwinter.
Storeowner Marilyn (Coghill) Duggar sells fresh tomatoes to Rucky Richards.


Nenana is a wonderfully old-fashioned town. Up the road 50 miles, in Fairbanks, you can go see the actual "Riverboat Nenana" -- which was named for the town. Inside the refurbished riverboat are dioramas -- miniature displays of the historic towns along Alaska's great interior river system. When you drive over the bridge at Nenana, and look down into the real town below, it looks exactly like one of those Fairbanks dioramas. 

Barges still ply the Tanana River in the summertime, heading out toward the Yukon and the coast. An actual "port," Canadian river traffic comes in from the east. The Alaska Railroad goes through town, past the old train depot.. This is one of the three historic depots left in the state. (The other two historic old green depots, all of which look roughly the same, are equally fading; one is in Wasilla and the other in Seward.) 

At one time, Nenana was a major crossroad. The old Iditarod Trail came through Nenana. In fact, this was the jumping off point of the actual historic serum run to Nome. And the Parks Highway crosses the town, too.

Its buildings are where they've been since they were built. And among the small, historic, functional homes is Coghill's General Store. Inside Coghill's you'll find Marilyn Duggar (a "Coghill" herself.) Invariably, Marilyn is friendly, available, cheery -- and usually clad in a sweatshirt, as she mans the front counter, and Nenana residents troop in and out, buying magazines, or milk, or bread, or whatever they need.

This January, we went into Coghill's on a relatively warm day, during an unexpected Chinook. One by one, townspeople arrived. They bought something, talked with Marilyn, and then left for home -- carrying fresh tomatoes, or red peppers, or lubricating oil, or bolts and nuts. 

Not every village or town in Alaska has a place like Coghill's. In fact, many places close down nowadays during the winter months. But Coghill's keeps plugging away, as it has for decades. The hardwood floor, the historic walls, the fresh, Nenana-laid multi-colored eggs and Nenana-grown potatoes; that "grocery store" smell. It's all there, hearkening back to another time. Running the store is a labor of love, and caring, and the people of Nenana are living, on a day-to-day basis, in a world that is both modern (as Marilyn busily texts her kids) yet relentlessly "Alaskan" and unique. 

Here's to keeping our communities strong!

Locally made beaded mocassins on sale at Coghill's General Store. 
The heart of the town, Coghill's Store offers more than the (surprising) huge Nenana-grown potatoes, or the mutlicolored fresh eggs that come from a local farm.