Did This Town Inspire Cicely?
Near Talkeetna, Alaska
Fans of the early nineteen nineties television series Northern Exposure often arrive in Talkeetna convinced they have found Cicely, the quirky fictional Alaskan town at the heart of the show. The comparison is easy to make. Cicely was a remote place full of eccentric characters, a bush pilot, a former astronaut, a philosophical radio host, and Talkeetna has always had a reputation for exactly that kind of colorful independence.
Here is the honest truth, though. The claim that Talkeetna inspired Cicely is popular but unproven. No one connected with the show has ever confirmed that Talkeetna was the model, and the series was not even filmed in Alaska.
The town that stood in for Cicely on screen was Roslyn, Washington, chosen because it looked convincingly like the far north. So enjoy the resemblance without believing the legend too firmly. What is certainly true is that Talkeetna has the spirit the show celebrated.
This is a place where a cat served as mayor, where climbers and artists and river guides share the same three blocks of Main Street, and where being a little offbeat is practically a civic requirement. Cicely or not, the character is real.
