Bus 142 Virtual Exhibit: Boreal Forest Edition

Bus 142 is currently located in the ConocoPhillips Alaska High Bay Structural Testing Lab at the Joseph E. Usibelli Engineering Learning and Innovation Building (JUB) on the UAF campus.

Welcome to this virtual experience of Bus 142 and the UA Museum of the North's Bus 142 Conservation and Exhibition Project. Explore the bus as a virtual exhibit app on Windows and Mac OS machines.

 

This app is in development as part of the UA Museum of the North's conservation and exhibition of Bus 142 for visitors to Fairbanks and beyond. The final Bus 142 exhibition will comprise 3 major components: the exterior exhibit and walking tour of the bus, a UAMN Gallery of Alaska exhibit, and a virtual exhibition to include editions of this app.

 

 

 

version 3.04.03.2

version 3.04.03.2

DOWNLOADS

1GB download, 1.25GB installed. Recommended 4GB available RAM

NOTES ON OPENING THE APP ON MAC AND WINDOWS MACHINES
Be sure to open the downloaded file with the context menu (“right click”) to navigate the “malicious software” security warning on apps downloaded from the Internet.

Bus 142 was removed from the Alaska wilderness in the summer of 2020 and later deposited at  the University of Alaska Museum of the North for long term curation and exhibition. Bus 142, an encapsulation of many facets of Alaska, saw life in the military, as a school bus, and as part of the Fairbanks transit system before serving as a shelter on the Stampede Trail. The bus is a story not just of one particular person who spent the last few months of his life there. It is a history of interior Alaska and mining, the occupation of wilderness, and personal exploration. The museum’s goal is to make Bus 142 the centerpiece of a free, outdoor, public exhibit at the museum that will allow people to safely experience all aspects of this vehicle’s history. Taking the bus from its fresh off the trail, raw condition and preparing it for long-term public exhibition is an involved and lengthy process. Over the course of several years, while the bus is located in the ConocoPhillips Alaska High Bay Structural Testing Lab at the Joseph E. Usibelli Engineering Learning and Innovation Building (JUB) on the UAF campus, we will begin the process of conserving the bus and documenting its rich history.

Find more information on UAMN’s project to conserve and exhibit BUS 142 here.

Please take a moment to answer some of the questions in this APP survey. The APP is a visitor resource that will evolve with the development of the museum exhibit. User feedback will be incorporated throughout the process. The survey can also be accessed from within the app.

Goggle survey 

 

COMING SUMMER 2023: CONSERVATION EDITION

The Exhibit App will soon include documentary media on the Bus 142 conservation process occurring Spring 2023. We invite you to return every couple months as the team updates the app with new images and commentary as work progresses and the museum prepares for putting this historical object on exhibit.

Conservation work on Bus 142.

 

The UA Museum of the North is proud to be an official state repository for the State of Alaska. It is through this relationship that we are able to be the caretaker of Bus 142.