Built in 1905, by Alaskan gold miners John and Florence Sullivan, the roadhouse was a very comfortable stop along a winter cut-off route on the newly cleared Valdez to Fairbanks Trail. It was big, warm and well appointed. Ma Sullivan made her guests feel right at home. Business was booming and the sod-roofed lodge was never empty. In the midst of this prosperity, fate dealt its first blow. The cut-off, in an attempt to be a shorter route, went straight over the top of several mountains. Many grades were too steep to pass and travelers began to forego the short cut for the flatter and easily traversed main trail. The Alaska Road Commission was forced to remedy the situation and moved the winter cut-off around the steep grades. This re-routing took the trail 4 and 1/2 miles away from the Sullivan’s lodge. In order to stay in business, John and Florence had to get their roadhouse back on the trail. So, log-by-log they moved the original building back out on the trail. During the rebuilding, the Sullivan's installed a metal roof, a rare site in the Interior of Alaska at that time. This metal roof would eventually turn out to be one of the roadhouse’s greatest assets.
The museum deals with the history of the Valdez-Fairbanks Trail and the roadhouses that once operated along here.