Hub Gas Station Switches From Tesoro To Marathon – Overnight

Bye, Bye Tesoro!

The Hub Is A Marathon Now 

The new Marathon pumps at the Hub. (9 pm, August 8th, 2024) 

The Hub gas station in Glennallen has left Tesoro. It's now a Marathon station.

On the evening of Thursday, August 8th, new logos and gas pumps were being installed by Marathon. The Tesoro company was purchased by Marathon Petroleum in 2018, and was considered by many Alaskans for many years to be their hometown brand of fuel – something like "Carrs" was considered for decades to be Alaska's hometown grocery. 

Marathon branded pumps at the Hub. (Photos, Country Journal) 

According to the Marathon national web site, there are over 6,000 Marathon stations across America. The web site countdown map did not show any Marathon stations in Alaska as of August 8th.

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NATIONAL MARATHON GAS STATION LOCATIONS 

SHOWN AUGUST 8TH, 2024 ON THE WEB...

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This will be a big change. Ever since the "new" Hub was built at the junction of the Glenn and Richardson Highways in Glennallen, the Hub has been a Tesoro station. Here's a Hub ad in the Copper River Country Journal's "Snowcountry" winter travel guide, way back when...

"Mom – I'm In Tesoro, Alaska!"

In the 1990s, Jody McDowell, who had just been hired as the new head of what was then known as Prince William Sound Community College, drove into Alaska, cross country. 

For years, she liked to tell the tale of how she pulled into the Hub. It was night – probably winter. She had just come across all those little towns and villages in Canada, and through Tok and past Tetlin. It was all new and exciting for her. These faraway places, with strange-sounding names! 

This was before there were cell phones. There was a pay phone at the door of the Hub, on the left, facing out into the parking lot. Jody called her mom back in the Lower 48  to tell her she had gotten here safe. 

Her mom asked, What town are you in? 

Jody peered out the glass window on the front door next to the phone and saw the big "Tesoro" sign. Jody had never heard of Tesoro Gas. But it sure sounded Alaskan. "I'm in Tesoro, Alaska," she said.