The Episcopal Church in Fairbanks: St. Matthews

The Episcopal Church in Fairbanks: St. Matthews. 1029 First Avenue. , "I made the claim for this church that it meant light: that it meant more light here in Fairbanks." , -Archdeacon Hudson Stuck in the first service at St. Matthew's., The Episcopal Church's activity in Alaska's vast interior had been well established by pioneering Canadian missionaries early as the 1850s. The Reverend Charles Rice and Esias Joseph journeyed overland from Circle, Alaska, on the Yukon River, to the new gold camp of Fairbanks in March 1903. "Mr. Rice held what was purported to be the first church service in the new settlement" on Sunday, March 29, 1903, in a tent building called the Fairbanks Saloon. The stay was brief and they returned to Circle., In February of 1904, Episcopal Bishop Peter Trimble Rowe walked from Valdez to Fairbanks. The community donated these river front lots, and Bishop Rowe agreed to build, staff, and operate the first hospital in Fairbanks. Episcopal medical staff were recruited from Circle and Skagway, and by September 1904, St. Matthew's Hospital was open. In its first two years, the hospital cared for 350 patients., St. Matthew's Church also was constructed that fall, and the bell in the steeple first called residents of the Tanana Valley to worship on Sunday, October 16, 1904; this was the first time a church bell rang in Fairbanks, the bell has called ever since. The first service was led by the Reverend John Huhn of Rampart and the newly arrived Archdeacon Hudson Stuck., Together with the Hospital, which closed in 1915, the Episcopal Church also established the first library in Fairbanks, opened churches in neighboring gold camps and Tanana River Athabascan villages, and hosted the first official meeting between the federal government and chiefs of the Tanana River region in 1915., On March 13, 1913, Archdeacon Stuck, Athabascan Walter Harper his companion and friend, and Harry Karstens Gold Rush Pioneer and later first superintendent of Mt. McKinley National Park, departed from the front of St. Matthew's with a seven dog team to begin the first successful ascent of Denali (Mt. McKinley). In Nenana, they gained another dog team, additional supplies, and two young men, John Fredson and Esias George, to help with freighting and chores. An Episcopal seminarian, Robert Tatum, also joined the expedition. Stuck, Karstens, Harper, and Tatum reached the south summit of Denali on June 7, 1913. By prior agreement, Walter Harper was the first to stand on the highest elevation in North America, the south peak of Denali (Mt. McKinley) at 20,320 feet., The original log structure of St. Matthew's burned in 1947, Wood carvings, including the altar carved by hospital nurses, and additional treasures, including the church bell, were saved. Reopening on Christmas Eve 1948, the original bell rang again for Fairbank's residents to come to St. Matthew's, and the bell continues to call today., [Photo captions, top and bottom, read] , . Stuck expedition leaving for Denali, 3/13/1913., . St Matthew Church, Hospital and Reading Room, circa 1906.