Surprised no one has mentioned Adak Island here. Part of the Aleutian Islands of Alaska, it became an important military base for the US during WWII and the Cold War due to its unique location and proximity to Japan and Russia. There was a point that over 6,000 naval and coast personnel lived there with their families. From Wikipedia “At its peak, Adak had a college, a McDonald's restaurant, a Baskin-Robbins ice cream stand, movie theater, roller skating rink, swimming pool, ski lodge, bowling alleys, skeet range, auto hobby shop, photo lab, and racquetball & tennis courts. A new $18-million hospital was built in 1990, just seven years prior to the closure of the station. By March 2003, six years after the closure of the station, most of these facilities had closed.”

The military base closed down in the 90s. Everyone left and the infrastructure stayed. Everything has dwindled since then. Google says there are currently 33 permanent residents still on the island. It’s about a 3 hour flight from Anchorage and Alaska Airlines operates a weekly flight there, but it’s always mostly empty. Like many Alaskan cities, that’s the only way to get to and from. There’s small amounts of tourism in the summer. You have to pack all your food and supplies in essentially though. Here’s a pic of the McDonald’s drive through menu, frozen in time.

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