Where is  Cicely?

"Nobody knows for sure-- the producers and writers of Northern Exposure--NX have sprinkled enough misleading clues that it cannot be pinpointed exactly."

But one can take the bulk of the evidence and come up with some educated guesses.  I will explore some of these below.

Some include (references to specific episodes are in [brackets]):

It's in the 63rd parallel, placing it in the main body of the state. [Hello, I Love You]
Cantwell, Alaska is latitude 63 23 17 N

You can travel from Cicely to Cantwell on Route 8 (Ruth-Anne and Walt did), which again places it in the main body of the state. [Hello, I Love You].
barkeep: Route 8 is the Denali Highway, which runs east-west between Paxson on the Richardson Highway and Cantwell on the George Parks Highway.Good clue--fits in with some of the others.

 Route 6 also leads into town [Una Volta in L'Inverno]
barkeep: Route 6 is the Steese Highway between Fox (just north of Fairbanks) and Circle on the Yukon River. On this route is Central--another town that in some ways resembles the fictional Cicely.  Not a useful clue. As it contradicts some of the others.

The men run naked out to Highway 1 when the ice breaks [Spring Break]
barkeep: Highway 1 is the Tok-Cutoff to the Richardson to the Glenn Highway at Glennallen to the Seward Highway, Anchorage to Homer, Alaska.  Good clue because it fits with several others that seem to place Cicely somewhere within south central Alaska.


It's just across the border from Sixty Mile, in Canada. [Northern Hospitality]
barkeep: Sixty-Mile does not exist. There is a Forty-Mile, which is the gold-mining country in the eastern part of Alaska adjacent the Yukon Territory. This clue can be discounted.


It is within a 75 mile radius of 143 degrees W, 62 degrees N, according to the ice-sculpture at Maurice's feast. [The Big Feast]
barkeep: Talkeetna is at 62:20:13N 150:05:33W


The address on the post card that Joel sends to Maggie is

Maggie O'Connell
P.O. Box 86
Cicely, AK 99729
barkeep: The zip code for Cantwell, AK.

However, it is noteworthy that Cantwell is one of the destinations frequently mentioned in the series, which eliminates that community from consideration. 




It's north of the Arctic Circle because they spend some days in complete darkness [Northern Lights] and some days in complete light [Midnight Sun] It's south of the Arctic Circle because they don't have permafrost [Survival of the Species]
barkeep: The only place where this happens are certain Inupiat communities.  None of them even remotely resemble mythical Cicely.  This clue is not useful and might as well not be considered.


It's 40 air-minutes from Anchorage, the nearest hospital. (Joel tells Shelly she'll be going there to deliver. [Baby Blues]) Maggie also receives her flight service briefings from Anchorage.
barkeep: Could be Talkeetna or the Gulkana airstrip near Glennallen. Good clue.

It's 200 miles from the next nearest town. [Ill Wind]
barkeep: That's about right for Chitina or Cantwell.Good clue.

It's 200 miles from Sleetmute, and not too far from Unalakleet.
barkeep: This one matches nothing. Both of those are in far-western Alaska, well off the highway system on or near the Bering Sea !Actually, all the references to Sleetmute can be discounted. Sleetmute is a small barge landing on the Kuskokwim River with no discernible town.

It's 400 miles from Soldotna (the length of the drive for the owner of "Rick" the dog.) [Animals R Us]
barkeep: Could be either Chitina or Talkeetna . Good clue.


It's 500 miles from Sourdough. [Spring Break]
barkeep: This one does not fit anything. Sourdough is just north of Glennallen. The writers obviously found this name on either a map or a book of Alaskan place-names and liked it, just as they did Sleetmute and Unalakleet. This clue can be discounted.
 

aerial of Copper Center where the Klutina (right) meets the Copper River (top). The CRD (my home and business) is on the left (click)

It's located along a river (or at least Roslyn, WA is), and is 1000 miles from Anchorage [Kaddish] (which of course, means that Maggie's little Cessna 170 travels at 1500 miles an hour :-)
barkeep: The Susitna flows near Talkeetna, the Copper flows near Chitina. Both are subject to a massive breakup every spring--much as described in the episode "Spring Break." The distance can be discounted, but the existence of a river is a useful clue.


It's in the panhandle, because the specific Indians mentioned are Pacific Northwest tribes
barkeep: The Indians are prototypical Pacific coastal Natives with the recognizable totem poles that mark them as such.  They do resemble Tlingit or Haidas, but are actually a kind of generic coastal mix of Natives. In fact, the Native stand-ins were from a mix of tribes from various places in Washington State. This clue can be discounted, except for one thing:
the presence of so many Natives in the series, which is not the case with Roslyn, is in itself a clue. Best locations based on this are Chitina, Copper Center, and to a much lesser extent, Talkeetna.  I know of other fellow Natives who were attracted to this series largely because it marked the first time (and maybe only time) we know of where Natives were present in ways that were a) reasonably realistic in their portrayal and b) numerous. They were literally integrated into the fictional town with many, many stand-ins. We really appreciated both of these aspects of NX, of course. It was, I believe, very much in keeping with the highly-unusual and very compelling spirit of the entire show.


It's in the panhandle portion that runs along the coast next to Canada ("The cusp of the new Alaskan Riviera" - premiere episode)
barkeep: This one doesn't fit in with the others, although the climate in SE more closely fits the filming site of Roslyn, Washington than does the interior. This clue can be discounted.


At least we know that it's on a major log truck route, and there are paved roads nearby [premiere].
barkeep: There actually was a modern-day logging operation around Chitina and Copper Center in the late 90s after the show went off the air. However, Southeast Alaska was the only major logging area in Alaska (not anymore. That industry was largely killed by environmental law suits years ago). No log trucks were used in SE except maybe on some of the remote islands.  This clue is not very useful. 

Although it is obvious that there is no way to determine the intended location of the fictional Alaskan town of Cicely, I have always maintained that it most resembles Talkeetna on the Alaska Railroad route and the Parks Highway, but even more so it appears to be a cross between Talkeetna and Chitina (see map above). It could also, in some ways, be my own locality of Copper Center. 

Downtown Roslyn: Pennsylvania Avenue, the main drag (click)