How I Survive in a 'Middle-of-Nowhere' Alaskan Town with No Roads and Stores 45 Minutes Away by Plane (Exclusive)

• Salina Alsworth Peterson tells PEOPLE exclusively about being born and raised in Port Alsworth, a "middle-of-nowhere" town in Alaska without roads and only accessible via plane founded by her ancestors

• She lives with her husband in a village of less than 200 people and works at her family's resort year-round, which nearly doubles the town's population in the summer due to its tourist attraction

• She chronicles her unique way of Alaskan living on social media as a side hustle, sharing her occasional grocery hauls when she hops on a flight that takes about one hour to the nearest town with stores and restaurants

Imagine forgetting something at the grocery store in town and you want to go back to get it, but you have to hop on a near-hour-long flight that costs an approximate $600 roundtrip to do so. That may sound like an extreme hypothetical for many — but for Salina Peterson, it's her reality.

On a map, her remote Alaskan village is called Port Alsworth. It's a census-designated place cozily situated within the vast wilderness of Lake Clark National Park and is home to approximately 180 people, the largest community within the scenic — yet roadless — land.

Peterson, né Salina Alsworth Peterson, is one of those people — along with her family and formerly her ancestors who discovered the eponymous snow-covered town in 1950. It sits on the lake's south shore at the mouth of the Tanalian River.

While you can now plot Port Alsworth's coordinates, Peterson — a native who’s lived there her entire life — still considers it "in the middle of nowhere," telling PEOPLE in an exclusive interview about what it takes to survive in the nearly off-the-grid town and why she continues to reside there 27 years later. 

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"This is how I grew up. It's normal," Peterson says of her day-to-day in remote Alaska. It’s uniquely different from the way of life lived in the Lower 48, largely due to the village's geographical surroundings that impact daily travel and responsibilities.

"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."

Peterson calls it "amazing," even if that means venturing out to the nearest town, Anchorage, to do pretty much anything, from dining at a restaurant to purchasing food and necessities from the grocery store. It’s 165 miles southwest by air, which roughly equates to an hour and a half by plane.

When asked what’s within Port Alsworth that wouldn’t warrant hopping on a flight, Peterson — without hesitation — replies, “Nothing.”  

Anchorage is the largest city in Alaska and serves as a gateway to nearby wilderness areas. The only possible way to accomplish the commute for those traveling from Port Alsworth is by air taxi, a service boasting a profession that runs Peterson’s blood.

"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 recalls of her paternal relative named Leon (Babe) Alsworth. “He wanted to do something more with it, so he came to Alaska."

Babe was a missionary and bush pilot, who met his wife Marry Alsworth, an Aleut woman, through his travels to her native Pilot Point, an even smaller Alaskan village than Port Alsworth. Marry worked at one of the canneries Babe would often frequent for the job.

"Her family owned the general store. They were really involved in the canneries. So with flying, he met her, they fell in love and got married,” Peterson explains of Babe and her great-grandmother, who ultimately became Port Alsworth’s first postmaster. 

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The Homestead Act of 1862, signed by President Abraham Lincoln, granted Americans 160-acre plots of public land in exchange for a small filing fee and several met requirements.

"You had to show you could live off the land,” Peterson explains. “That’s how our family got here,” she says of their agricultural homestead that grew into the sprawling Port Alsworth known today. “I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my great-grandparents."

Ever since, the Alsworths have hustled to keep the town they founded a noteworthy destination on the map. Babe and Marry’s youngest son, Glen Alsworth Sr., established the Farm Lodge to tend to their agricultural homestead in 1977 alongside his wife, Patty Alsworth.

His son, Glen Alsworth Jr., followed suit, ultimately relocating the business in the early 2000s from their family farmhouse located in the middle of their agricultural homestead to the hillside facility overlooking Hardenburg Bay on Lake Clark’s southeast shore, where it remains — and thrives — today.  

Five generations of Alsworths have contributed towards the success of the Farm Lodge, including Peterson, who works at Lake Clark Resort alongside her family year-round doing guest relations and more — or as she puts it, “Anything that needs to get done to keep the company running.”

In addition, Peterson effortlessly drives publicity for her family’s resort on her own social media accounts which have racked up half a million followers across platforms and garnered hundreds of thousands of views.

Although she contributes to her family’s business, Peterson has lived on her own since 2019 — but for a town where “everything is within a mile of each other,” she’s “very close” to the rest of her brood.

"My parents literally live five steps away and my grandparents live another five steps away,” she says with a laugh.

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Work aside, Peterson fills her days with activities; many of which are advantageous to her arctic surroundings. “Our house is heated by a wood stove,” she says of where she and her husband reside.

"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."

It takes “a lot of work” to live comfortably in Port Alsworth, says Peterson with pride, especially since the Alaskan area has winters where temperatures could drop as low as -40 degrees Fahrenheit, and anything above -20 degrees Fahrenheit is considered “warm” for the season.

This is why crocheting and knitting are enticing to Peterson, who was causally donning a self-made sweater during her interview with PEOPLE in late February. “You need to find something you can do inside,” she says particularly for when the weather is “bad” and go-to hobbies like kayaking or hiking wouldn’t be enjoyable.  

Peterson also loves snowmobiling, an activity that doubles as an adventure-seeker's recreational activity and a common form of transportation for Port Alsworth’s roadless society. “We call them snow machines," she says.

Children, too, operate the four-wheeled vehicles, many of whom drive them to school.

"The kids get taught by their parents really young how to be safe,” says Peterson, noting that school buses do not exist in Port Alsworth. This is in part the reason why she started driving them herself at around “seven or eight” years old.

Despite growing up in Port Alsworth as a kid, Peterson admits it’s “been a learning curve” since she moved out of her parent’s home. Simple, everyday routines like preparing dinner require significant thought and strategy due to their dwelling’s remoteness.

"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 explains. “I can't just run to a store and grab something."

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In addition to freezer items and stocking up on shelf-safe nonperishables, Peterson says they’ll fish for salmon and hunt for moose during certain times of the year.

"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 explains. “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."

Living off the land is a more affordable option, as well, since Peterson says it's approximately 90 cents per pound of groceries being flown into town; therefore making their grocery bill "a lot" in total.

Food aside, all of their deliveries are transported via mail plane every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Those who reside in Port Alsworth can order from Amazon; though to no surprise, Amazon one-day shipments are not an option!

While Peterson has spent the majority of her life residing in Port Alsworth, she did experience life outside of the remote Alaskan town having attended college in Oregon before transferring to another in Virginia.

"I wanted a totally new experience, so it definitely was a culture shock... being able to walk to a store and get fresh fruit when I wanted to was just like mind-blowing," she says.

In fact, Peterson tells PEOPLE that those who visit the town she calls home are more "culture shocked" upon visiting simply "because of the beauty that's around us," she says. "So when people come, they're like, 'Oh my gosh, I never want to leave. This place is amazing."

As for Alaskan-born Peterson, who moved to the Lower 48 and back, she couldn't agree more.

Read the original article on People