BETHEL, Alaska (CBS/KTVA) -- Bethel got a taste of big city life this weekend with a little help from a popular fast food chain.
The city of Bethel is known for its quiet rivers and fish camps. Over 400 miles of wilderness separate the residents here from the nearest highway.
The 6,000 residents here have learned to live without big box stores and fast food chains. But many of them still crave a taste that can't be found anywhere in Western Alaska. One resident says, "Every time I go to Anchorage, people ask me to bring back tacos from Taco Bell, because everybody out here loves Taco Bell."
And for a few days this spring the town thought they were getting one, but it turned out not to be true. One resident says, "When I heard it was a hoax, it made my heart sink."
News of the great taco letdown eventually made it to Taco Bell executives. One Taco Bell executive says, "I know what it is like to crave something and then have it not show up, it'd be like me promising my five year old ice cream, and then not deliver - I couldn't let that happen to these people."
So with a hundred people at a cost of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Taco Bell made the trip north, assembling 10,000 tacos to feed the lines of hungry people lined up outside the Cultural Center.
They won't have to fly into the city to get their tacos today, because today, the tacos are flying to them.
One resident says, "In Bethel you don't see this big of a herd, I think everybody and their dog is here today."
For people here, it was worth the wait for a taste of mainstream America, even if it is just for one day.
Also with the Taco Bell employees was a film crew. The company says it plans to use the footage in upcoming promotions.