The F.E. [Fairbanks Exploration] Company

The F.E. [Fairbanks Exploration] Company. . , Operating along Illinois Street for over 40 years, the Fairbanks Exploration (F.E.) Company was vital to the development of Fairbanks and Interior Alaska., Boom to Bust , When gold was discovered near Fairbanks in 1902, it triggered a rush that turned a trading post into a boomtown. The population of Fairbanks soared to 5,000 in 1909, but soon the most accessible deposits were panned out. Pick and shovel mining became unprofitable and the economy floundered. By 1920 the population had shrunk to 1,155., The (New) Golden Age , In 1925 the F.E. Company arrived in Fairbanks to begin a dredging operation that extracted gold deposits unreachable by pick and shovel mining. To process the gold the company built a state-of-the-art industrial complex off a spur from the recently completed Alaska Railroad. By the 1930s the F.E. Company employed nearly 1,000 people (over a quarter of the local population), including machinists, engineers, and dredge operators. Workers bought goods and services locally that helped keep the Fairbanks economy healthy., Crisis Precipitates Change , When the U.S. entered World War II, the government declared gold mining non-essential, and in October 1942 the F.E. Company dredges shut down. The F.E. Company assisted the Army during the war by providing facilities, heavy equipment, and electricity. Although gold production resumed after the war, the F.E. Company never regained its stature in the Fairbanks economy and discontinued dredging in 1965., [Photo captions, clockwise from top left, read] , . This dredge at Fox was one of eight operated by the F.E. Company in the creeks surrounding Fairbanks., . An F.E. Company employee strips frozen muck off the gold-bearing gravel with a high pressure water cannon (hydraulic giant)., . The F.E. Company office building was the center of operation. Notice the sign above the door. The F.E. Company was a subsidiary of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company based in Boston, Massachusetts., . Background: Aerial photograph [of F.E. Company complex], circa 1925-1935