Fairbanks Alaska, situated in the heart of the Tanana Valley with the Alaska Range to the south and the gold-bearing hills to the north, is still, in spirit, a frontier town.
Here you walk the streets side by
side with merchants, miners, Indians, Eskimos, pioneers and cheechakos. It is a city of contrasts. Historic buildings contrast with the modern-day facades of department stores and office buildings.
Today,
Fairbanks is a transportation hub able to serve North Slope oil fields and Arctic villages.
Visitor Information can be found at
Fairbanks is a modern, bustling city. Twelve radio stations, six television stations, a public Broadcasting System operated by the University of Alaska Fairbanks and of course cable TV. Fairbanks has one daily
newspaper, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner; churches, 32 public schools, numerous private schools and a regional library.
Fairbanks is Alaska's second largest city and has expanded its borders to include a city population of 30,000, and an overall area population of 97,000 incorporated as the Fairbanks North Star Borough. During
the summer in Fairbanks, you can see crystal clear skies, with Denali etched
against the blue horizon. There are division less days and nights of light when flowers bloom profusely in vibrant reds, yellows and blues from June until mid-September. Daylight goes on for more than 21 hours. The average summer temperature is 61, with records in the mid-90's in June and July.
In winter, you will find a quiet white city, sometimes with an eerie sting of ice fog. The average winter temperature is 12 below, with the record 66 below. Still, a city of contrasts.
One of the favorite aspects of Fairbanks is its rich cultural life. Here live writers, painters, weavers, sculptors, poets, historians, print makers, potters, musicians, photographers and actors, some of them
award winning. Much of their work is readily available in local gift shops, art galleries and stores.
History In 1901 Captain E.T. Barnette disembarked from the steamship, Lavelle Young, and set up a temporary trading post on the banks of the Chena River.
His temporary post became permanent when Felix Pedro discovered gold in the nearby hills the following year, sparking a stampede of miners into the Interior. Fairbanks, incorporated as a city in 1903, was named
after Indiana Senator Charles Fairbanks who later became vice-president. Now, “discovery day” is commemorated every July with a bang-up celebration called Golden Days.
There is still active mining in the area and glimpses of the former bonanzas can be seen along the Steese Highway in the tailing piles leftover by the gold dredges. Fairbanks economy is tied to government, military, the petroleum industry, transportation, the University of Alaska and tourism.
Even though the town itself is modern, you can still find plenty of that gutsy pioneer spirit. Despite the boom and bust eras of the pipeline, goldrushes and a devastating flood in 1967, Fairbanks
continues to develop and prosper.
