Blood & Biohazard Cleanup Near Downtown Willow Willow, AK

Willow is a census-designated place in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough with 2,196 residents and 1,000 households in the 2020 census, up from 2,102 in 2010.

Willow lies 26 miles northwest of Wasilla along the George Parks Highway and is part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area.

The community began in 1897 when miners discovered gold on Willow Creek, and by 1954 Willow Creek was Alaska's largest gold mining district, with total production approaching 18 million dollars.

The Alaska Railroad built its Willow station house in 1920 at mile 185.7 on the line from Seward to Fairbanks, and a post office was established in 1948.

In 1976 Alaskans voted to move the state capital from Juneau to Willow, but funding for the move was defeated in the November 1982 election, so Juneau remains the capital.

Willow is the largest census-designated place in the United States by area, covering 692.9 square miles, of which 684.8 square miles are land.

Willow is the official host of the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race restart, and dog mushers including Iditarod winner Dallas Seavey have lived and kept kennels there.

The Willow Creek State Recreation Area a few miles north of Willow covers 3,583 acres with a large campground and access to one of the busiest salmon fishing areas in the state.

More than half of the roughly 1,500 cabins around Willow are for seasonal use, and in the 2020 census 55.1 percent of the community's 2,228 housing units were vacant.

In June 2015 a large wildfire burned thousands of acres near Willow, destroyed numerous structures and forced the closure of the George Parks Highway, severing the road link between Anchorage and Fairbanks.