The Settlement

The Settlement. Historic Fairbanks. , Gradually, prospectors drifted into the Interior. By 1900 about 100 hardy souls searched the hills and valleys of the Tanana Valley for precious metal. In 1902 Felix Pedro, an immigrant coal miner from Italy, struck gold., He reported his find to trader Elbridge Truman Barnette, who had erected a temporary camp on the shores of the Chena River in 1901. News of Pedro's strike spread quickly to Rampart, Circle, and Dawson. By the summer of 1903 as many as 1,000 stampeders had arrived at Barnette's trading post. Almost overnight the trading post became a town and E. T. Barnette one of its leading citizens. He accumulated considerable wealth and became Fairbanks' most powerful banker. In 1911 Barnette's luck ended when his Washington-Alaska Bank went bankrupt., Life was harsh in the Interior. The Tanana Valley did not yield gold easily and many of the claims were unprofitable. In 1906 a fire devastated the business district of Fairbanks. Many burnt-out merchants and discouraged miners left in its aftermath. Others, in a remarkable show of faith, went ahead with the construction of a regional hospital that served the community until 1967., In the years of World War I, gold mining declined in the region and the younger generation left to seek opportunities elsewhere. In 1920 only 1,115 residents remained in the once bustling gold camp. However, a new College a few miles from Fairbanks and a railroad connecting Fairbanks to tidewater at Seward soon led to new growth., [Photo/illustration captions, top to bottom, read] , . A map of the Fairbanks townsite, 1926, . Above left: Capt. Elbridge Truman Barnette. Above right: Judge James Wickersham, whose decision to relocate his Federal District Court to Fairbanks further aided the community., . In 1905 a crowd gathered at the Washington-Alaska Bank on the corner of Second Avenue and Cushman Street to watch the transfer of a gold shipment. The man in the white shirt in front of the door appears to be Felix Pedro., . Below: The Fairbanks waterfront, 1905., . "We tied up in Fairbanks, a prettily situated mushroom town that had grown to 10,000 in two years. A town of remarkable character with paved streets, fine painted building blocks and two daily newspapers." , a Fairbanks visitor, 1905