Fairbanks

Fairbanks. Incorporated November 10, 1903. , It All Started with Gold, In 1901, Felix Pedro and Tom Gilmore were panning the creeks in the unexplored wilderness of the Tanana Valley. The same year, trader E. T. Barnette was traveling the river system to find a location for a trading post. When the sternwheeler LaVelle Young was stopped by shallow water, Barnette and his party unloaded their supplies here on the south bank of the Chena River. The new trading camp provided much needed supplies to Pedro and Gilmore and, in the summer of 1902, they found gold about 20 miles north of here. Soon people were rushing to the Interior on foot and by riverboat and dog sled. Barnette's camp grew rapidly. Its future brightened in 1903 when Judge James Wickersham made the new city his headquarters. He suggested its name, Fairbanks, after Senator Charles Fairbanks of Indiana. The judge oversaw the construction of a courthouse. Fairbanks had become the judicial seat of the new mining district. On November 10, 1903, the City of Fairbanks was incorporated., The first mayor, A. J. Nordale, was selected in 1910. By that time there were over 10,000 people in the valley, but the gold north of town was starting to play out. Ten years later only about 1,000 remained. But, in the 1920's, Fairbanks began to grow again. The federal Alaska Railroad was completed from the south coast to Fairbanks. An agricultural and mining college was established, with Charles E. Bunnell as its first president. And the F.E. Company began to use a large mechanical dredge to make gold mining productive again., The invasion by the Japanese of the U.S. Territory of Alaska during World War II spurred the construction of Ladd Field near Fairbanks and the Alcan Highway, the first land link between the United States and its territory. Lend-lease aircraft were processed through Ladd Field and then flown by Russian pilots across Siberia to the European front., In the 1950's, in response to a Russian threat, the Congress appropriated money to build Distant Early Warning (DEW Line) stations across Alaska. The construction of these radar facilities gave the Fairbanks economy a post-wartime lift., In 1959, after a long struggle, Alaska became the 49th state, and Fairbanks joined in the celebration., Fairbanksans celebrated the 100th anniversary of the purchase of Alaska from Russia in 1967, with the Alaskaland Pioneer Park as the official site of the state-wide celebration. A devastating flood on August 14, abruptly ended the festivities., The next year, 1968, a giant oil field was discovered on Alaska's North Slope, and Fairbanks assumed the role of a major supply center. Nine years later, in 1977, the oil started flowing to market through an 800-mile-long, 48-inch pipeline. Fairbanks is at the mid-point of the pipeline, just as it was the center of construction of this massive civil project. Fairbanks is indeed the Golden Heart of a Great Land. And as Alaska prospers, so will Fairbanks, fueled by the spirit of new generations who trace the footsteps of the Pioneer families whose vision will always be with us.