History of Fairbanks
Encyclopedia
The history of Fairbanks
, the second-largest city in Alaska
, can be traced to the founding of a trading post by E.T. Barnette
on the south bank of the Chena River
on August 26, 1901. The area had seen human occupation since at least the last ice age, but a permanent settlement was not established at the site of Fairbanks until the 20th century.
The discovery of gold near Barnette's trading post caused him to turn what had been a temporary stop into a permanent one. The gold caused a stampede of miners to the area, and buildings sprang up around Barnette's trading post. In November 1903, the area's residents voted to incorporate the city of Fairbanks. Barnette became the city's first mayor, and the city flourished as thousands of people came in search of gold during the Fairbanks Gold Rush
.
By the time of World War I
, the easy-to-reach gold was exhausted and Fairbanks' population plunged as miners moved to promising finds at Ruby
and Iditarod
. Construction of the Alaska Railroad
caused a surge of economic activity and allowed heavy equipment to be brought in for further exploitation of Fairbanks' gold deposits. Enormous gold dredge
s were built north of Fairbanks, and the city grew throughout the 1930s as the price of gold rose during the Great Depression
. A further boom came during the 1940s and 1950s as the city became a staging area for construction of military depots during World War II
and the first decade of the Cold War
.
In 1968, the vast Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
was discovered in Alaska's North Slope
. Fairbanks became a supply point for exploitation of the oil field and for construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
, which caused a boom unseen since the first years of Fairbanks' founding and helped the town recover from the devastating 1967 Fairbanks Flood. Fairbanks became a government center in the late 1960s with the establishment of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which took Fairbanks as its borough seat
. A drop in oil prices during the 1980s
caused a recession in the Fairbanks area, but the city gradually recovered as oil prices climbed during the 1990s. Tourism also became an important factor in Fairbanks' economy, and the growth of the tourism industry and the city continues even as oil production declines.
uncovered a Native camp about 3,500 years old. From evidence gathered at the site, archaeologists surmise that Native activities in the area were limited to seasonal hunting and fishing. In addition, archeological sites on the grounds of nearby Fort Wainwright
date back 10,000 years. Sites within Alaska but away from Fairbanks date to the time of the Bering Land Bridge more than 13,000 years ago. Arrowheads excavated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks site matched similar items found in Asia, providing some of the first evidence that humans arrived in North America via the land bridge.
The first recorded exploration of the Tanana Valley
and the Tanana River
did not take place until 1885, but historians believe Russian traders from Nulato
and Hudson's Bay Company
traders ventured into the lower reaches of the Tanana and possibly the Chena River in the middle of the 19th century. In 1885, Henry Tureman Allen
of the U.S. Army led the first recorded expedition down the length of the Tanana River, charting the Chena River's mouth along the way.
In July 1897, the first news of the Klondike gold strike reached Seattle, Washington, triggering the Klondike Gold Rush
. Thousands of people boarded steamships heading north to the gold fields. Some of these travelers sailed around the western tip of Alaska and up the Yukon River to Dawson City (site of the gold fields) rather than take an arduous overland trip across the Boundary Ranges
.
One of these adventurers was E.T. Barnette, who intended to establish a trading post at Tanacross, Alaska
, where the Valdez-Eagle Trail crossed the Tanana River. He hired the steamer Lavelle Young to transport him and his supplies, and they began their trip upriver in August 1901. After turning into the Tanana from the Yukon, the steamboat ran into low water. After venturing upstream several miles, the boat reached an impassable point. Barnette suggested the Chena River (then called the Rock River) might be a slough
of the Tanana and a way around the low water. About 15 miles (24.1 km) from the mouth of the Chena, the Lavelle Young again ran into an impassable stretch of river. The captain of the Young did not want to travel downstream with a heavy load because of the danger posed by the extra mass. He therefore unloaded Barnette's cargo on August 26, 1901, with an irate Barnette assisting.
Barnette began building a cabin at a site he named "Chenoa City", and he sold supplies to two prospectors
, Felix Pedro
and Tom Gilmore, who were in the area. Barnette traded for furs, then traveled to Valdez
via dog team
with his wife and three other men. The mountain pass they traveled through was later named Isabel Pass
in honor of Barnette's wife. From Valdez, he returned to St. Michael, where he built a steamboat, the Isabelle, and began sailing up the Yukon in August 1902. He intended to move his supplies to Tanacross, but when he arrived at his trading post on the Chena River, he changed his mind. Felix Pedro had discovered gold.
in St. Michael. Wickersham was the judge for the federal Third Judicial District, which stretched from the North Slope to the Aleutian Islands. Wickersham was impressed with Barnette and his plan to establish a trading post at Tanacross. He suggested Barnette name his settlement Fairbanks, after Charles W. Fairbanks
, the senior Senator
from Indiana
. Barnette liked the idea and later said, "If we should ever want aid at the national capital, we would have the friendship, at least, of someone who could help us." When Barnette heard of Pedro's gold strike, he transferred the name for his planned Tanacross store to the settlement on the Chena River and convinced the people with him to accept the name.
When Barnette and the Isabelles crew heard of Pedro's discovery, they immediately fled the boat and the settlement to stake claims on creeks and likely gold-bearing spots 12 miles (19.3 km) north, near the mountain and creek Pedro named after himself. Marking a claim was simple. Each man could pick a set amount of space, which was marked with posts at each corner, hence "staking" the claim. Each claim had to be listed by a federal recorder. When Barnette and the crew of the Isabelle were staking claims, Barnette proclaimed himself the interim recorder until an official one could be brought to the area. Although they also recorded their claims with Barnette, most men also reported their claims at the official office in Circle. To maximize his gain, Barnette had power of attorney
for several relatives in Ohio
. He staked claims in their names, thus giving him authority over a large portion of what was believed to be the gold-bearing terrain.
Word of Pedro's discovery spread during the months that followed Barnette's arrival in September 1902. In December, he wrote to a friend in Seattle, "A message came yesterday that 1,000 people had left Nome
during the last three days for here. I look for half of Dawson here before spring." In January 1903, Barnette's cook, Jujiro Wada
, arrived in Dawson City with word of the gold find. On January 17, 1903, the Yukon Sun newspaper ran the headline "RICH STRIKE MADE IN THE TANANA" across most of its front page, spurring miners from the Yukon to stampede to Fairbanks in the first big rush of the settlement's history.
, and other places arrived in the Tanana Valley, they were disappointed with what they found. Hundreds of claims were staked, but none were close to Pedro's discovery claims, which had been taken by the crew of the Isabelle and other early arrivers. Adding to the pressure on claiming land were men who, like Barnette, had power of attorney rights for others, and could thus make multiple claims. The Dawson Daily News reported that one man claimed 144 portions of 20 acres (80,937.2 m³) apiece. Around Barnette's trading post, town lots were claimed for $2.50 apiece, and there was fierce competition for the choicest spots. At the mouth of the Chena River, a competing settlement, named Chena, sprang up when two traders moved their store to the junction of the two rivers. Land speculation
was fierce in Chena, where claims were frequently stolen and had to be enforced with firearms.
Accounts vary, but historians estimate that by spring 1903, between 700 and 1,000 men arrived in the Tanana Valley. This put an enormous strain on Barnette's stock of food, which rapidly rose in price with demand. Miners objected to Barnette charging $12 per bag of flour and requiring them to buy cases of canned food. They gathered outside his store and demanded he lower his prices or they would burn it down. He responded that he had riflemen inside the building, and both groups reached a compromise. Shortly afterward, Barnette headed south with his wife on a dog team, intending to gather investors to purchase more supplies.
In April, Judge Wickersham arrived on a trip looking for a location for the courthouse, jail, and government offices for the Third District courts. He later described his first view of the settlement: "A half-dozen new squat log structures, a few tents ... a small clearing in the primitive forest—that was Fairbanks as I first saw it on April 9, 1903." Wickersham examined Chena as a potential site for the government offices, but he settled on Fairbanks, partially because Barnette's partner and brother-in-law, Frank Cleary, gave Wickersham a choice piece of land valued at between $1,500 and $2,000. Wickersham asked Cleary to name the two main streets in town Cushman and Lacey, after U.S. Representatives
Francis W. Cushman
of Washington and John F. Lacey
of Iowa
.
Wickersham estimated 500 people in town, and another count estimated 1,000, with 387 houses under construction, six saloons, and no churches. Before spring arrived, Wickersham published the first newspaper in the settlement—the Fairbanks Miner—on a typewriter. It sold seven copies at $5 per copy. But even as the walls of Wickersham's courthouse were going up, dissatisfied miners were leaving the area. Hundreds left on rafts going downriver or steamers going to Dawson City. By June 1903, cabins on city lots were selling for as little as $10. Meanwhile, Barnette sold two-thirds of his store to the Alaska Commercial Company and arranged for the establishment of a post office at his settlement.
In fall 1903, the flood of miners leaving the Tanana Valley ended when major gold strikes were made north of Fairbanks. The gold was deeper than in the Klondike, and it had taken time to dig to it. At Cleary Creek, miner Jesse Noble discovered what became the richest vein of gold in Alaska. Gold extraction was slow, because almost no heavy machinery was available to remove the overburden
above the layers of gold. The gold discoveries of 1903 reversed the trend of people away from the Tanana Valley. By Christmas 1903, there were between 1,500 and 1,800 miners in the valley. Another food shortage arose during the winter of 1903, alleviated only by the food Barnette had brought in after his trip to the Lower 48.
Despite the food shortage, more buildings were constructed. The Northern Commercial Company built a store to replace Barnette's cabin, and Wickersham recorded a wide range of businesses, including 500 houses and 1,200 people. To manage the growing population, the settlement held a vote on November 10, 1903 to decide whether to incorporate
Fairbanks as a town or not. The vote passed, and Barnette was sworn in as the city's first mayor on the next day.
Gold production increased from $40,000 in 1903 to $600,000 in 1904 and $6 million in 1905. This expansion and the accompanying rise in population drove further productivity. Barnette opened the town's first bank on September 9, 1904. One month earlier, two Catholic priest
s built the town's first church, Immaculate Conception Church. Also in 1904, construction of a railroad began in Fairbanks and Chena, its downstream neighbor. Low water on the Chena River prevented steamboats from reaching Fairbanks, so a railroad line was built from the Tanana River at Chena to Fairbanks and the mines north of town. Construction of the Tanana Mines Railroad (later the Tanana Valley Railroad) was finished to Fairbanks on July 17, 1905. Two new banks opened in 1905, as did the city's first greenhouse, and a new $10,000 bridge across the Chena River. In June 1905, the bridge caused the biggest flood in the young city's history when a bridge upstream of it collapsed and the resulting wreckage caught in the bridge and blocked the river's flow. The river rose, flooding the town, and the bridge had to be dynamite
d to halt the flood. The next year, a fire destroyed most of Fairbanks, and the damage was estimated at $1.5 million. The town was quickly rebuilt, and the town's first hospital, St. Joseph's
, was built on the north bank of the Chena. Because the hospital was run by a Catholic religious order, Immaculate Conception Church was later transported across the Chena River and placed next to the hospital. In 1907, Barnette's bank was forced to temporarily close due to the Panic of 1907
and legal troubles. A new school was built, which housed 150 students. Other schools were built on the north side of the Chena River, which was separate from town.
In 1908, the U.S. Army Signal Corps built a radio telegraph tower in town, replacing the cable telegraph system to Valdez and Seattle. The 176 feet (53.6 m) tower was the tallest structure in town for decades. In 1909, Fairbanks gold production peaked at more than $9.5 million. The town saw its first library
open that year, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
, the city's longest-lived newspaper, began publishing.
Poor investments caused the bank founded by Barnette to fail
in January 1911, at a time when it held more than $1 million in deposits from Fairbanks residents. In Fairbanks, the common belief was that Barnette had embezzled money from the bank. Although he was found guilty of only one of 11 charges against him, Barnette had a poor reputation in Fairbanks. For years afterward, Fairbanks newspapers referred to any robbery as "Barnetting" the subject.
The accusations against Barnette were big news in a town that had little crime. Gambling and drinking were common throughout town. Prostitution was restricted to a district separated from the rest of town by a wooden fence. The "line," as it was known, operated until the 1950s with the tacit approval of city authorities. Fights were common, but gunplay was not. As one miner recalled, not more than one man in 500 carried a gun, and while fisticuffs were common, gunfights were not. This was backed up by the experience of Northern Commercial Company stagecoach drivers, who carried more than $7 million overland during a 12-year period without a single incident.
caused a further decline as the town's young men were drafted
and sent overseas. Economic effects also were felt. A local judge later stated that the war "set Fairbanks back by 10 years" because it dried up construction and sent men overseas. After the war, the 1918 flu pandemic was particularly virulent in Alaska; it killed between 2,000 and 3,000 people in the territory. By 1923, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner estimated there were fewer than 1,000 people in the city, and almost none at the mining camps beyond town.
and the creation of the University of Alaska.
predicted a railroad link to the ocean would allow gold miners to bring in heavy equipment and process large amounts of low-grade ore. "Not only will the cost of living be cheaper to the miner, but he will be able to get his heavy machinery at a price low enough to enable him to work a vast quantity of low-grade ground, which cannot be touched under present conditions." Eight years after that remark, the U.S. Congress appropriated $35 million for construction of the Alaska Railroad system. News of the appropriation set off celebrations among Fairbanks residents who hoped its construction would prove a boon for the local economy.
In 1917, the Alaska Railroad purchased the Tanana Valley Railroad, which had suffered from the wartime economic problems. The railroad line was extended westward, until it reached the town of Nenana
and a construction party working north from Ship Creek, later renamed Anchorage
. Until the railroad was finished and coal from Healy
became available, Fairbanks burned wood as a heating source and to provide electricity. In 1913, the town burned between 12,000 and 14,000 cords of wood, with the Northern Commercial Company (owners of the power plant) burning 8,500 cords alone.
President Warren G. Harding
visited Fairbanks in 1923 as part of a trip to hammer in the ceremonial final spike of the railroad at Nenana. The rail yards of the Tanana Valley Railroad were converted for use by the Alaska Railroad, and Fairbanks became the northern end of the line and its second-largest depot.
), opened its doors to six students. The school was thought up by James Wickersham, who had risen to become Alaska's delegate to Congress. In 1915, Wickersham gained approval of a bill funding the college from the 63rd United States Congress
. After the bill was approved, he traveled to Fairbanks and selected a site on a hill four miles west of Fairbanks, in what is today College, Alaska
. On July 4, 1915, acting "without the authority of law," he laid the cornerstone for the school.
The site for the school was directly north of the U.S. Agricultural Experimental Station (Tanana Valley), an experimental farm created by Charles Christian Georgeson
in 1907. The farm was a project by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to explore the agricultural potential of Interior Alaska. By 1916, one year after the founding of the University of Alaska, the experimental farm employed 20 people. As mining declined in the Fairbanks area, some miners turned to homesteading. Under the Homestead Act
, many miners applied for grants of land from the federal government and established farms around the city. A 1919 survey by the U.S. Geological Survey identified 94 homesteads within six miles of Fairbanks. Also listed were two tungsten mills and 16 gold mills.
Agriculture in the area was spurred by food and fodder shortages during the winters of 1913, 1915, and 1916. Fairbanks businessmen also encouraged the growth of farming. Wickersham provided more funding for the experimental farm, the Tanana Valley Railroad provided free grain seed acquired from an experimental farm in Sweden, and William Fentress Thompson, editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, wrote frequent editorials in favor of more farming. Prominent Fairbanks businessmen formed the Alaska Loyal League
, a group that encouraged farming. Farmers also created the Tanana Valley State Fair in 1924 to demonstrate their agricultural success. It is Alaska's oldest state fair and still operates today. Despite these moves, the agriculture movement in Fairbanks had only limited success. A farmers' bank established in 1917 to provide loans for equipment purchases went out of business two years later, and although the Alaska Railroad allowed for cheaper shipment of tractors and other agricultural equipment, it also permitted a steady supply of food shipments to Fairbanks. In 1929, Alaska farms met only about 10 percent of the state's food demand. By 1931, the University of Alaska had grown to the point that the experimental farm was annexed by the school.
s to work the large amount of low-grade ore that remained after the Fairbanks Gold Rush. The best example of this is the construction of Davidson Ditch
, a 90 miles (144.8 km) aqueduct built between 1924 and 1929 to provide water for gold dredging. Fairbanks Exploration Company (FE Co.), a division of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, built both the aqueduct and many of the dredges that used its water to process ore. Large-scale dredging began in 1928, and FE Co. became the town's biggest employer. It built the biggest power plant in Alaska to provide electricity for the dredges, and it built pumping stations to provide them with water from the Chena and other rivers.
In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt fixed the price of gold at $35 per ounce
. This price increase encouraged mining and insulated Fairbanks from the Great Depression
. When Roosevelt called for a bank holiday
to alleviate the worst effects of the depression, Fairbanks banks declined, saying they didn't need one. Large-scale dredging peaked in 1940, when 209,000 ounces of gold were produced in the Fairbanks area. After the outbreak of World War II
in the United States, the federal government closed most gold-mining operations, deeming them unessential to the war effort.
In 1932, Fairbanks' two-story school, built in 1907, burned to the ground. A new, $150,000 three-story concrete art deco
building was proposed as a replacement, and after heated debate, a $100,000 bond measure was approved in 1933. On January 22, 1934, the new school opened. It had space for about 500 students, but the town's growth required renovation and expansion in 1939 and 1948.
flew from a field south of town. The aircraft had been crated and sent from Seattle via Skagway and Whitehorse. The pilot subsequently tried to sell the aircraft, but had no takers. Alaska's first commercial aircraft didn't arrive until June 1923, when Noel Wien
began flying a Curtiss JN-4
on mail routes between Fairbanks and isolated communities. From Fairbanks, Wien became the first person to fly to Anchorage and cross the Arctic Circle in an airplane.
Given Alaska's limited road and rail infrastructure, the territorial government saw the advantages of aerial transport. In 1925, the territorial legislature authorized the spending of up to $40,000 per year on airfield construction. Between that year and 1927, more than 20 airfields were built. By 1930, Alaska had more than 100. In Fairbanks, airplanes flew from a field that doubled as a baseball diamond until 1931, when the city bought the field, installed infrastructure, and named it Weeks Field
. By the late 1930s, there were more than four dozen airplanes in the town of about 3,000 people, giving Fairbanks the reputation of having the most airplanes per capita in the world. Because of Fairbanks' location halfway between New York City
and Tokyo
, it became a crucial stop on the first around-the-world flights. Wiley Post
's 1933 solo circumnavigation stopped in Fairbanks, as did Howard Hughes
' 1938 effort.
Military flights also used Fairbanks as a base. In 1920, the first flight from the continental United States to Alaska used Fairbanks as a base. In 1934, a flight of Martin B-10
bombers flew from Washington, D.C. to Fairbanks, ostensibly to demonstrate the feasibility of long-range bomber deployments. In reality, the bombers flew photographic missions intended to scout locations for military airfields to be built in the territory.
to start World War II
. The first runway was finished in September 1940, and the base was dedicated then, before most of the buildings were complete.
In the first winter after the dedication, soldiers practiced flying and servicing aircraft in subzero weather conditions. More than 1,000 workers, most of whom were hired from outside Alaska, worked on the project through 1941. Despite these outside workers, the construction effort caused unemployment to almost vanish in Fairbanks, causing a large demand for labor. Fairbanks' economy grew, and the city's first radio station, KFAR
, began broadcasting on October 1, 1939. Hangars and base buildings were completed in summer 1941, but the second winter of cold-weather testing was interrupted by the Japanese
attack on Pearl Harbor
.
operators who passed the news to the U.S. Army base. More than 200 civil defense
volunteers immediately signed up for work that included orchestrating a town blackout
, blocking town airfields, and making emergency plans to evacuate the town in the event of an attack. In June 1942, the invasion of the Aleutian Islands and the bombing of Dutch Harbor
intensified the war's effect on Fairbanks. Ladd Field's cold-weather testing detachment was disbanded as its soldiers were used to bolster Alaska defenses at other locations.
During summer 1942, more soldiers arrived in Fairbanks to replace those moved away from town. Fairbanks residents were drafted to work at Ladd Field because the U.S. Army believed Alaskans were best experienced in cold-weather work. After gold mining was suspended during the war, the Army leased FE Co. offices and requisitioned supplies from Fairbanks businesses. Wartime demand and the draft caused a severe labor shortage in Fairbanks, and supplies of various food and commercial products were interrupted beyond the wartime rationing in the rest of the country. Crime also increased, and because the U.S. Army was placed in wartime control of the Alaska Territory, all newspapers and letters to and from Fairbanks were censored.
To alleviate shortages and supply the war effort, the U.S. Army and the Canadian government began construction of the Alaska Highway
, which connected the Canadian road network to Alaska's Richardson Highway
and Fairbanks. The highway was completed in fall 1942 and regular traffic began in 1943. As work on the highway took place, war supplies were already reaching Fairbanks through the air. The Northwest Staging Route
, a chain of airfields, ended at Fairbanks. Starting in February 1942, supply aircraft began landing in Fairbanks to supply the war effort in Alaska. In summer 1942, negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in an extension of the Lend-Lease effort to Russia. Using the Northwest Staging Route, aircraft were flown from Great Falls, Montana
, to Ladd Field. At Ladd Field, the aircraft were turned over to Soviet pilots, who flew them to Nome and on to the Soviet Union. Fairbanks was chosen as a transfer location because it was more protected from potential Japanese attack than Nome.
Starting in fall 1942, large numbers of Soviet soldiers arrived in Fairbanks to work with the U.S. soldiers already in the town. The massive Lend-Lease effort required additional facilities to be built in and near Fairbanks. Ladd Field expanded in size, and the grounds of the U.S. Army post expanded until it met the city limits of Fairbanks. The University of Alaska, which saw most of its students taken up by the draft, provided office and dormitory space for U.S. and Soviet soldiers. Its professors also contributed to the war effort with specially created Russian language classes. Russian airmen were regular customers of Fairbanks stores, and they bought large amounts of consumer goods unavailable at home. To meet demand when Ladd Field was unusable due to fog, an airfield now known as Eielson Air Force Base
was built southeast of Fairbanks. Although there were some conflicts between Soviet and U.S. soldiers and civilians, Lend-Lease operations in Fairbanks continued through the end of the war, and when Lend-Lease ended in September 1945, 7,926 aircraft and tons of cargo had been transferred to Soviet officials in Fairbanks.
The University of Alaska also grew during this period. In 1946, Congress appropriated money for construction of a Geophysical Institute
to study Arctic phenomena such as the aurora borealis. The institute was established in 1949 and spurred the university's growth as the GI Bill simultaneously boosted the student population. Elementary education also developed as the Fairbanks school district (Today the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District) was established in 1947 to collect school taxes from areas outside city limits that were sending students to Fairbanks' school. The Golden Valley Electric Association, an electrical cooperative, was founded in the 1940s to provide electricity to areas outside Fairbanks city limits. In 1953, it bought the FE Co. power plant that served Fairbanks and provided electricity to customers as varied as Fairbanks' second radio station, KFRB, and the town's largest farm, Creamer's Dairy.
A new airport opened on Oct. 15, 1951 to replace Weeks Field, which had been encroached upon by the town's growth, including Denali Elementary School, the town's first new school since the 1930s. The new Fairbanks International Airport
began serving DC-6
s, which cut the travel time from Seattle to six hours from eight. The new airport also attracted an over-the-pole
test flight by Scandinavian Airlines System
, but the airline eventually chose Anchorage as a refueling point for flights from Stockholm
to Tokyo
. Ground transportation also improved in Fairbanks, as a major program to pave downtown roads began in 1953 with the goal of coating 30 blocks. New military facilities sprang up around Fairbanks and further away. The city was a staging area for construction of the Distant Early Warning Line
, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at Clear Air Station, and several Nike Hercules air defense missile batteries.
The first skyscrapers were built in Fairbanks during this period: the eight-story Northward Building and the 100 feet (30.5 m) Hill (later Polaris) Building were built in the first half of the 1950s. The first traffic lights were installed during the same period. Fairbanks' first television station, KTVF
Channel 11, began broadcasting on February 17, 1955. The city's first dedicated high school, Lathrop High
(originally Fairbanks High), also began operating in 1955. In the four years that followed, four new elementary schools opened, taking the burden off Main School, which became Main Junior High School.
. Alaskans could not vote in presidential elections and had a territorial legislature with limited powers. Efforts to lobby federal legislators for an Alaska statehood bill met with limited success, so prominent territorial officials decided to draft a state constitution to prove Alaska's readiness to become a state. On November 8, 1955, 55 elected delegates gathered at the University of Alaska to begin drafting a state constitution. The resulting debates lasted more than two months and caused a sensation in Fairbanks. Debates of the constitutional convention were broadcast on Fairbanks radio, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner dedicated daily reports to the progress of the convention. On February 5, 1956, the delegates signed the constitution in front of 1,000 people who crowded into the University of Alaska gymnasium. The building where deliberations took place was subsequently named Constitution Hall.
On June 30, 1958, the U.S. Senate voted 64–20 to accept Alaska as a state. The news set off massive celebrations in Fairbanks. Residents set off fireworks, an impromptu parade took place down Cushman Street, the city's main road, and an attempt to dye the Chena River gold in celebration instead turned it green. The celebration was capped when residents used weather balloons to lift a 30 feet (9.1 m) wide wooden star painted gold and emblazoned with "49" into the air. The balloons lifted it, then drifted into power lines, causing a 16-minute power outage across the city.
President Dwight Eisenhower officially signed the new state into the United States on January 3, 1959, putting the Alaska constitution into effect. The new state's constitution called for the creation of borough governments to help manage the new state. Fairbanks and other areas were reluctant to impose an additional layer of government on themselves, and balked. In 1963, the Alaska Legislature
passed the Mandatory Borough Act, which required the eight most populous areas of the state to form organized boroughs by 1964. Students from Fairbanks schools chose "North Star" as the Fairbanks' borough's name, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough came into existence on January 1, 1964.
The years after statehood saw the military boom continue to boost the Fairbanks economy and growth of the city. Fairbanks International Airport's runway was lengthened to 11,500 feet to accommodate jet aircraft. The George Parks Highway
was built from Fairbanks to Anchorage and Denali National Park, encouraging tourism. Homes were built on the hills to the north of Fairbanks for the first time, roads were repaved and smoothed, and sidewalks replaced dirt paths. The growth had a price, however. Many of the structures built during Fairbanks' founding were torn down in the name of urban renewal
. The first home built in Fairbanks was demolished, as were the final homes remaining on "the line", Fairbanks' prostitution district.
In 1960, the U.S. Air Force made plans to close Ladd Airfield and transfer its functions to nearby Eielson Air Force Base and Elmendorf Air Force Base
near Anchorage. When the decision was publicly announced, it was met with almost unanimous opposition by Fairbanks residents and businesses in the area. Although the Air Force held firm in its decision to transfer out of the base, the U.S. Army took over the post on January 1, 1961 and renamed it Fort Wainwright
.
The arts scene in Fairbanks also grew during this time. The Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1959, and the Fairbanks Drama Association was created in 1963. The Alaska Goldpanners
baseball team was founded in 1959 as the city's first professional sports team. The next year, the Goldpanners hosted their first annual Midnight Sun Baseball Game, a tradition that had been conducted since 1905 and continues under the Goldpanners' auspices today. Through the 1960s, Fairbanks became much more like small towns in the Lower 48 as communications, transportation, and utilities improved.
but was plagued by rain, financial problems, and low attendance.
One month after the celebration of Alaska's centennial, the worst disaster in Fairbanks history took place. In July 1967, Fairbanks received 3.34 inches (8.5 cm) of rain, almost double the July average of 1.84 inches (4.7 cm). Then between August 11 and August 13, Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley received the heaviest rainfall in recorded history. In the 24 hours prior to noon on August 12, 3.42 inches (8.7 cm) of rain fell. Average rainfall for the entire month of August is 2.2 inches (5.6 cm). In August 1967, 6.2 inches (15.7 cm) fell on Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley.
The unprecedented rainfall turned the Chena River into a torrent. On August 14, it passed flood stage
and continued to rise. Because no hydrological
equipment had been installed upstream of Fairbanks, residents were unaware of the flood's scale. All day and night on August 14, the water rose. It inundated the A-67 site and volunteers sank the SS Nenana to keep it from floating on the rising waters and damaging buildings. In downtown Fairbanks, hundreds of volunteers built a sandbag dike around St. Joseph's Hospital to no avail. As the water crested the emergency dike, doctors, nurses, and patients evacuated to the University of Alaska on College Hill.
The university, which is built on high ground, served as an evacuation point and emergency shelter for thousands of flood refugees. The civil defense director of the university expected between 700 and 800 people to take shelter at the university. Between 7,000 and 8,000 showed up as the water rose through August 14 and 15 and crammed into facilities designed to house just over 1,000 students. A helipad
was set up in a parking lot, and helicopters from Eielson Air Force Base ferried supplies to the refugees. Fairbanks' power plant was flooded, so the university depended on its physical plant to provide electricity for the refugees. When the rising water threatened to flood the plant, hundreds of the refugees massed to build barricades and pump out the plant's basement.
The flood had a massive effect on Fairbanks. Four people were killed, and the damage ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars. It helped push the city's remaining farm, Creamer's Dairy, into bankruptcy, and it forced the closure of St. Joseph's Hospital. Fairbanks residents responded to the problems with aplomb. The annual Tanana Valley State Fair was postponed but not canceled. Seven thousand dollars were raised to buy Creamer's Dairy and turn it into a bird sanctuary. KTVF, one of the few town businesses to have flood insurance, rebuilt its studio and became the first Fairbanks TV station to broadcast in color, four months after the flood. When two bond measures to build a government-run hospital were turned down by Fairbanks voters, residents raised $2.6 million from private contributions and $6 million from the state and federal government to build Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.
In the flood's wake, the U.S. Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1968, which provided funding for construction of the Chena River Lakes Flood Control Project on the Chena River upstream of Fairbanks. The project was built between 1973 and 1979 and diverts the Chena River into the Tanana River when the former river rises above a certain level. A chain of dikes were built along the Tanana River to prevent high water from that river flooding Fairbanks from the south. Many businesses benefited from low-interest federal loans to rebuild, which was done quickly. In 1969, Fairbanks was one of 11 cities honored as an "All-America City" by Look magazine
and the National League of Cities
in honor of its success in recovering from the flood.
, about 400 miles (643.7 km) north of Fairbanks. The resulting discovery of the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
sparked a massive boom in Fairbanks, which was the nearest city to the field. After abortive attempts to transport oil from the field using seagoing tankers and airplanes, the oil companies developing the field decided to build a pipeline. Plans were set into motion and about to move forward when legal challenges halted the project in 1970. One set of challenges, those levied by Alaska Native groups in the path of the pipeline, was settled by passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
in 1971. Thirteen major Alaska Native corporations and dozens of smaller ones were created to manage the cash payment and land grants distributed by the federal government under the act. In 1972, Fairbanks became the headquarters of Doyon, Limited
, the largest of these corporations.
The Fairbanks economy, which briefly boomed in the period between the discovery of oil and the legal challenge, stagnated as legal challenges dragged on. The challenges were ended by approval of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act
in late 1973. When pipeline work began in early 1974, it sparked a boom in Fairbanks unlike anything since the years immediately after the city's founding. Alyeska Pipeline Service Company
alone spent an estimated $800,000 a day in Fairbanks, which housed the construction headquarters on Fort Wainwright. Tens of thousands of workers poured into the city, straining the economy, infrastructure, and public works. The population of the Fairbanks North Star Borough increased by 40 percent between 1973 and 1976. The number of businesses in the area doubled during the same period.
This increase in population caused many adverse effects. Municipal Utilities Service, which operated telephone service, ran out of phone numbers and the waiting list for phone connections stretched to 1,500 entries. Electric demand was so high that the power company advised homeowners to buy generators to cope with frequent brownout
s. Home prices skyrocketed—a home that sold for $40,000 in 1974 was purchased for $80,000 in 1975. Home and apartment rentals were correspondingly squeezed upward by the rising prices and the demand from pipeline workers. Two-room log cabins with no plumbing rented for $500 per month. One two-bedroom home housed 45 pipeline workers who shared beds on a rotating schedule for $40 per week.
The skyrocketing prices were driven by the high salaries paid to pipeline workers, who were eager to spend their money. The high salaries caused a corresponding demand for higher wages among non-pipeline workers in Alaska. Non-pipeline businesses often could not keep up with the demand for higher wages, and job turnover was high. Yellow Cab in Fairbanks had a turnover rate of 800 percent; a nearby restaurant had a turnover rate of more than 1,000 percent. Many positions were filled by high school students promoted above their experience level. To meet the demand, Lathrop High School ran in two shifts: one in the morning and the other in the afternoon to teach students who also worked eight hours a day. More wages and more people meant higher demand for goods and services. Waiting in line became a fact of life in Fairbanks, and the Fairbanks McDonalds became No. 2 in the world for sales—behind only the recently opened Stockholm store. Alyeska and its contractors bought in bulk from local stores, causing shortages of everything from cars to tractor parts, water softener salt, batteries and ladders.
The large sums of money being made and spent caused an upsurge in crime and illicit activity. This was exacerbated because police officers and state troopers resigned in large groups to become pipeline security guards at wages far in excess of those available in public-sector jobs. Fairbanks' Second Avenue became a notorious hangout for prostitutes, and dozens of bars operated throughout town. In 1975, the Fairbanks Police Department estimated between 40 and 175 prostitutes were working in the city of 15,000 people. In the frigid temperatures of the winter months throughout the 1970s it was common to see street-walking prostitutes in downtown Fairbanks, clad fully from head-to-toe in luxuriant fur coats (and leaving everything to the imagination). Prostitutes brought pimp
s, who then engaged in turf fights
. In 1976, police responded to a shootout between warring pimps who wielded automatic firearm
s. By and large, however, the biggest police issues were drunken brawls and fighting, resulting in a situation akin to the lawlessness associated with the "American Old West
Wild West" of the American frontier of popular lore.
By 1976, after the city's residents had endured a spike in crime, overstressed public infrastructure, and an influx of people unfamiliar with Alaska customs, 56 percent said the pipeline had changed Fairbanks for the worse. In downtown Fairbanks, overcrowding, traffic problems, and drunken rambunctiousness caused by pipeline workers pushed businesses to move into malls built away from downtown. New commercial centers like Gavora Mall, Bentley Mall
, and others away from the city center drove the construction of freeways that bypassed downtown Fairbanks.
Bolstered by grants and subsidies, cultural events and institutions grew in Fairbanks. The Fairbanks Light Opera Theatre was created in 1970, and groups such as the Fairbanks Concert Association and the Northstar Ballet were also created at about the same time. Fairbanks largest arts event, the Summer Arts Festival, began in 1980 and continues today.
Sports facilities also benefited from the influx of state funding. The Big Dipper Ice Arena
, a converted airplane hangar moved from Tanacross in 1969, went through a $5 million renovation in 1981 that allowed it to host the Arctic Winter Games
the next year. In 1979, the University of Alaska built the Patty Center, the first full indoor ice arena in Interior Alaska. The same year, the school started a NCAA Division I hockey team
.
Wien Air Alaska
, which had its headquarters in Fairbanks, was the state's largest private employer until it declared bankruptcy in 1983. The resulting shutdown cost hundreds of jobs in Fairbanks. This was a foretaste of more problems to come. In 1986, Saudi Arabia boosted oil production and oil prices plummeted. Alaska banks failed, construction came to a halt, and bankruptcies and foreclosures were common. A common practice in Fairbanks was for workers to drop their house keys off at local banks before catching a flight out of Alaska, the better to speed the foreclosure process. Although an expansion of Fort Wainwright helped the construction industry during this time, Fairbanks lost about 3,000 jobs between 1986 and 1989. The U.S. Army's 6th Infantry Division was stationed at Fort Wainwright in late 1987, but it was reduced to a single brigade
and renamed in 1993.
This period in the city's history also had some bright spots. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Alaska statehood, the city commissioned a 25-foot sculpture of an Alaska Native family signifying "Alaska's first family". The statue is the centerpiece of Golden Heart Plaza, which was dedicated in 1986 on the south bank of the Chena River in the middle of downtown Fairbanks. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan
and Pope John Paul II
briefly met in Fairbanks after it was realized that their two separate visits to Asia would cross over Alaska at the same time. Approximately 10,000 people attended their meeting, which was the largest gathering of people in Fairbanks' history.
The U.S. military remains a large presence in Fairbanks. The U.S. 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division is based at Fort Wainwright, and Eielson Air Force Base remains a training and logistics hub for the U.S. Air Force. In 2009, the U.S. Army announced that it is considering basing 1,000 additional soldiers at Fort Wainwright because of its ample space.
Utilities and other services also have significantly changed since 1990. Fairbanks Memorial Hospital was renovated and expanded in 1976, 1985, 1995, and 2000. In 2009, the hospital opened a new heart care center during its latest expansion. Bassett Army Hospital on Fort Wainwright went through a $132 million renovation in 2005. To meet the demand for a convention center and large sporting arena, the city paid for construction of the Carlson Center
, a 5,000-seat arena that opened in 1990. In 1996, the city of Fairbanks privatized its utilities when the Municipal Utilities Service was sold to a private company. About $74 million from the sale was deposited into a savings account called the Fairbanks Permanent Fund, which was invested and managed in a fashion similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund
.
Fairbanks
Fairbanks may refer to:Places in the United States*Fairbanks, Alaska, city*Fairbanks, California, unincorporated community in El Dorado County*Fairbanks, Mendocino County, California, former settlement*Fairbanks, Indiana, unincorporated community...
, the second-largest city in Alaska
Alaska
Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
, can be traced to the founding of a trading post by E.T. Barnette
E.T. Barnette
Elbridge Truman Barnette , Yukon riverboat captain, banker, and swindler, founded the city of Fairbanks, Alaska and served as its first mayor.-Biography:...
on the south bank of the Chena River
Chena River
The Chena River is a 100-mile-long river in the Interior region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It flows generally west from the White Mountains to the Tanana River near the city of Fairbanks, which is built on both sides of the river...
on August 26, 1901. The area had seen human occupation since at least the last ice age, but a permanent settlement was not established at the site of Fairbanks until the 20th century.
The discovery of gold near Barnette's trading post caused him to turn what had been a temporary stop into a permanent one. The gold caused a stampede of miners to the area, and buildings sprang up around Barnette's trading post. In November 1903, the area's residents voted to incorporate the city of Fairbanks. Barnette became the city's first mayor, and the city flourished as thousands of people came in search of gold during the Fairbanks Gold Rush
Fairbanks Gold Rush
The Fairbanks Gold Rush was a gold rush that took place in Fairbanks, Alaska in the early 1900s. Fairbanks was a city largely built on Gold Rush fervor at the beginning of the 20th century. Discovery and exploration continue to thrive in and around modern-day Fairbanks.- History :Felix Pedro spent...
.
By the time of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, the easy-to-reach gold was exhausted and Fairbanks' population plunged as miners moved to promising finds at Ruby
Ruby, Alaska
Ruby is a city in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 188.-Geography:Ruby is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of ....
and Iditarod
Iditarod, Alaska
Iditarod is an abandoned town in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska.- Geography :It is on a horseshoe lake that was once a bend in the Iditarod River, northwest of Flat, ultimately flowing into the Yukon river.- History :...
. Construction of the Alaska Railroad
Alaska Railroad
The Alaska Railroad is a Class II railroad which extends from Seward and Whittier, in the south of the state of Alaska, in the United States, to Fairbanks , and beyond to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the interior of that state...
caused a surge of economic activity and allowed heavy equipment to be brought in for further exploitation of Fairbanks' gold deposits. Enormous gold dredge
Gold dredge
A gold dredge is a placer mining machine that extracts gold from sand, gravel, and dirt using water and mechanical methods.The original gold dredges were large, multi-story machines built in the first half of the 1900s....
s were built north of Fairbanks, and the city grew throughout the 1930s as the price of gold rose during the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. A further boom came during the 1940s and 1950s as the city became a staging area for construction of military depots during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and the first decade of the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
.
In 1968, the vast Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
Prudhoe Bay oil field
Prudhoe Bay Oil Field is a large oil field on Alaska's North Slope. It is the largest oil field in both the United States and in North America, covering and originally containing approximately of oil.. BP. August 2006...
was discovered in Alaska's North Slope
Alaska North Slope
The Alaska North Slope is the region of the U.S. state of Alaska located on the northern slope of the Brooks Range along the coast of two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Chukchi Sea being on the western side of Point Barrow, and the Beaufort Sea on the eastern.The region contains the...
. Fairbanks became a supply point for exploitation of the oil field and for construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
Trans-Alaska Pipeline System
The Trans Alaska Pipeline System , includes the Trans Alaska Pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one of the world's largest pipeline systems...
, which caused a boom unseen since the first years of Fairbanks' founding and helped the town recover from the devastating 1967 Fairbanks Flood. Fairbanks became a government center in the late 1960s with the establishment of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which took Fairbanks as its borough seat
County seat
A county seat is an administrative center, or seat of government, for a county or civil parish. The term is primarily used in the United States....
. A drop in oil prices during the 1980s
1980s oil glut
The 1980s oil glut was a serious surplus of crude oil caused by falling demand following the 1970s Energy Crisis. The world price of oil, which had peaked in 1980 at over US$35 per barrel , fell in 1986 from $27 to below $10...
caused a recession in the Fairbanks area, but the city gradually recovered as oil prices climbed during the 1990s. Tourism also became an important factor in Fairbanks' economy, and the growth of the tourism industry and the city continues even as oil production declines.
Before Fairbanks
Though there was never a permanent Alaska Native settlement at the site of Fairbanks, Athabascan Indians have used the area for thousands of years. An archaeological site excavated on the grounds of the University of Alaska FairbanksUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks, located in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska System, and is abbreviated as Alaska or UAF....
uncovered a Native camp about 3,500 years old. From evidence gathered at the site, archaeologists surmise that Native activities in the area were limited to seasonal hunting and fishing. In addition, archeological sites on the grounds of nearby Fort Wainwright
Fort Wainwright
Fort Wainwright is a United States Army post adjacent to Fairbanks in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is part of the Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
date back 10,000 years. Sites within Alaska but away from Fairbanks date to the time of the Bering Land Bridge more than 13,000 years ago. Arrowheads excavated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks site matched similar items found in Asia, providing some of the first evidence that humans arrived in North America via the land bridge.
The first recorded exploration of the Tanana Valley
Tanana Valley
The Tanana Valley is a lowland region in central Alaska in the United States, on the north side of the Alaska Range where the Tanana River emerges from the mountains.-Climate:...
and the Tanana River
Tanana River
The Tanana River is a tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to linguist and anthropologist William Bright, the name is from the Koyukon tene no, tenene, literally "trail river"....
did not take place until 1885, but historians believe Russian traders from Nulato
Nulato, Alaska
Nulato is a city in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 336.-Geography:Nulato is located at ....
and Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company , abbreviated HBC, or "The Bay" is the oldest commercial corporation in North America and one of the oldest in the world. A fur trading business for much of its existence, today Hudson's Bay Company owns and operates retail stores throughout Canada...
traders ventured into the lower reaches of the Tanana and possibly the Chena River in the middle of the 19th century. In 1885, Henry Tureman Allen
Henry Tureman Allen
Henry Tureman Allen was a United States Army officer known for exploring the Copper River in Alaska in 1885 along with the Tanana and Koyukuk rivers by transversing 1,500 miles of wilderness. His trek was been compared by General Nelson A. Miles to that of Lewis and Clark.Henry was born in...
of the U.S. Army led the first recorded expedition down the length of the Tanana River, charting the Chena River's mouth along the way.
In July 1897, the first news of the Klondike gold strike reached Seattle, Washington, triggering the Klondike Gold Rush
Klondike Gold Rush
The Klondike Gold Rush, also called the Yukon Gold Rush, the Alaska Gold Rush and the Last Great Gold Rush, was an attempt by an estimated 100,000 people to travel to the Klondike region the Yukon in north-western Canada between 1897 and 1899 in the hope of successfully prospecting for gold...
. Thousands of people boarded steamships heading north to the gold fields. Some of these travelers sailed around the western tip of Alaska and up the Yukon River to Dawson City (site of the gold fields) rather than take an arduous overland trip across the Boundary Ranges
Boundary Ranges
The Boundary Ranges, also known in the singular and as the Alaska Boundary Range, are the largest and most northerly subrange of the Coast Mountains...
.
One of these adventurers was E.T. Barnette, who intended to establish a trading post at Tanacross, Alaska
Tanacross, Alaska
Tanacross is a census-designated place in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 140...
, where the Valdez-Eagle Trail crossed the Tanana River. He hired the steamer Lavelle Young to transport him and his supplies, and they began their trip upriver in August 1901. After turning into the Tanana from the Yukon, the steamboat ran into low water. After venturing upstream several miles, the boat reached an impassable point. Barnette suggested the Chena River (then called the Rock River) might be a slough
River delta
A delta is a landform that is formed at the mouth of a river where that river flows into an ocean, sea, estuary, lake, reservoir, flat arid area, or another river. Deltas are formed from the deposition of the sediment carried by the river as the flow leaves the mouth of the river...
of the Tanana and a way around the low water. About 15 miles (24.1 km) from the mouth of the Chena, the Lavelle Young again ran into an impassable stretch of river. The captain of the Young did not want to travel downstream with a heavy load because of the danger posed by the extra mass. He therefore unloaded Barnette's cargo on August 26, 1901, with an irate Barnette assisting.
Barnette began building a cabin at a site he named "Chenoa City", and he sold supplies to two prospectors
Prospecting
Prospecting is the physical search for minerals, fossils, precious metals or mineral specimens, and is also known as fossicking.Prospecting is a small-scale form of mineral exploration which is an organised, large scale effort undertaken by mineral resource companies to find commercially viable ore...
, Felix Pedro
Felix Pedro
Felice Pedroni , known best to Americans by his Hispanicized alias Felix Pedro, was an Italian immigrant whose discovery of gold in Interior Alaska marked the beginning of the 1902 Fairbanks Gold Rush.-Early life:...
and Tom Gilmore, who were in the area. Barnette traded for furs, then traveled to Valdez
Valdez, Alaska
Valdez is a city in Valdez-Cordova Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 4,020. The city is one of the most important ports in Alaska. The port of Valdez was named in 1790 after the Spanish naval officer Antonio Valdés y...
via dog team
Sled dog
Sled dogs, known also as sleigh man dogs, sledge dogs, or sleddogs, are highly trained types of dogs that are used to pull a dog sled, a wheel-less vehicle on runners also called a sled or sleigh, over snow or ice, by means of harnesses and lines.Sled dogs have become a popular winter recreation...
with his wife and three other men. The mountain pass they traveled through was later named Isabel Pass
Isabel Pass
Isabel Pass is a gap in the eastern section of the Alaska Range which serves as a corridor for the Richardson Highway about 11 miles from Paxson....
in honor of Barnette's wife. From Valdez, he returned to St. Michael, where he built a steamboat, the Isabelle, and began sailing up the Yukon in August 1902. He intended to move his supplies to Tanacross, but when he arrived at his trading post on the Chena River, he changed his mind. Felix Pedro had discovered gold.
Origins of Fairbanks
Before Barnette traveled upriver with the Isabelle, he met Judge James WickershamJames Wickersham
James Wickersham was a district judge for Alaska, appointed by U.S. President William McKinley to the Third Judicial District in 1900. He resigned his post in 1908 and was subsequently elected as Alaska's delegate to Congress, serving until 1917 and then being re-elected in 1930...
in St. Michael. Wickersham was the judge for the federal Third Judicial District, which stretched from the North Slope to the Aleutian Islands. Wickersham was impressed with Barnette and his plan to establish a trading post at Tanacross. He suggested Barnette name his settlement Fairbanks, after Charles W. Fairbanks
Charles W. Fairbanks
Charles Warren Fairbanks was a Senator from Indiana and the 26th Vice President of the United States ....
, the senior Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...
from Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. Barnette liked the idea and later said, "If we should ever want aid at the national capital, we would have the friendship, at least, of someone who could help us." When Barnette heard of Pedro's gold strike, he transferred the name for his planned Tanacross store to the settlement on the Chena River and convinced the people with him to accept the name.
When Barnette and the Isabelles crew heard of Pedro's discovery, they immediately fled the boat and the settlement to stake claims on creeks and likely gold-bearing spots 12 miles (19.3 km) north, near the mountain and creek Pedro named after himself. Marking a claim was simple. Each man could pick a set amount of space, which was marked with posts at each corner, hence "staking" the claim. Each claim had to be listed by a federal recorder. When Barnette and the crew of the Isabelle were staking claims, Barnette proclaimed himself the interim recorder until an official one could be brought to the area. Although they also recorded their claims with Barnette, most men also reported their claims at the official office in Circle. To maximize his gain, Barnette had power of attorney
Power of attorney
A power of attorney or letter of attorney is a written authorization to represent or act on another's behalf in private affairs, business, or some other legal matter...
for several relatives in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
. He staked claims in their names, thus giving him authority over a large portion of what was believed to be the gold-bearing terrain.
Word of Pedro's discovery spread during the months that followed Barnette's arrival in September 1902. In December, he wrote to a friend in Seattle, "A message came yesterday that 1,000 people had left Nome
Nome, Alaska
Nome is a city in the Nome Census Area in the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska, located on the southern Seward Peninsula coast on Norton Sound of the Bering Sea. According to the 2010 Census, the city population was 3,598. Nome was incorporated on April 9, 1901, and was once the...
during the last three days for here. I look for half of Dawson here before spring." In January 1903, Barnette's cook, Jujiro Wada
Jujiro Wada
Jujiro Wada was a Japanese adventurer and entrepreneur who achieved fame for his exploits in turn-of-the-20th-century Alaska and Yukon Territory.-Origins:...
, arrived in Dawson City with word of the gold find. On January 17, 1903, the Yukon Sun newspaper ran the headline "RICH STRIKE MADE IN THE TANANA" across most of its front page, spurring miners from the Yukon to stampede to Fairbanks in the first big rush of the settlement's history.
Boom, bust, boom
When the miners from Nome, Dawson, RampartRampart, Alaska
Rampart is a census-designated place in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 45 at the 2000 census. In the 1950s, a large hydroelectric project called the Rampart Dam was considered for the Yukon River near the village. Had the project been completed, it would have...
, and other places arrived in the Tanana Valley, they were disappointed with what they found. Hundreds of claims were staked, but none were close to Pedro's discovery claims, which had been taken by the crew of the Isabelle and other early arrivers. Adding to the pressure on claiming land were men who, like Barnette, had power of attorney rights for others, and could thus make multiple claims. The Dawson Daily News reported that one man claimed 144 portions of 20 acres (80,937.2 m³) apiece. Around Barnette's trading post, town lots were claimed for $2.50 apiece, and there was fierce competition for the choicest spots. At the mouth of the Chena River, a competing settlement, named Chena, sprang up when two traders moved their store to the junction of the two rivers. Land speculation
Speculation
In finance, speculation is a financial action that does not promise safety of the initial investment along with the return on the principal sum...
was fierce in Chena, where claims were frequently stolen and had to be enforced with firearms.
Accounts vary, but historians estimate that by spring 1903, between 700 and 1,000 men arrived in the Tanana Valley. This put an enormous strain on Barnette's stock of food, which rapidly rose in price with demand. Miners objected to Barnette charging $12 per bag of flour and requiring them to buy cases of canned food. They gathered outside his store and demanded he lower his prices or they would burn it down. He responded that he had riflemen inside the building, and both groups reached a compromise. Shortly afterward, Barnette headed south with his wife on a dog team, intending to gather investors to purchase more supplies.
In April, Judge Wickersham arrived on a trip looking for a location for the courthouse, jail, and government offices for the Third District courts. He later described his first view of the settlement: "A half-dozen new squat log structures, a few tents ... a small clearing in the primitive forest—that was Fairbanks as I first saw it on April 9, 1903." Wickersham examined Chena as a potential site for the government offices, but he settled on Fairbanks, partially because Barnette's partner and brother-in-law, Frank Cleary, gave Wickersham a choice piece of land valued at between $1,500 and $2,000. Wickersham asked Cleary to name the two main streets in town Cushman and Lacey, after U.S. Representatives
United States House of Representatives
The United States House of Representatives is one of the two Houses of the United States Congress, the bicameral legislature which also includes the Senate.The composition and powers of the House are established in Article One of the Constitution...
Francis W. Cushman
Francis W. Cushman
Francis Wellington Cushman was a U.S. Representative from Washington.Born in Brighton, Washington County, Iowa, Cushman attended the public schools in Brighton and Pleasant Plain Academy in Pleasant Plain, Iowa....
of Washington and John F. Lacey
John F. Lacey
John Fletcher Lacey was an eight-term Republican United States congressman from Iowa's 6th congressional district. He was also the author of the Lacey Act of 1900, which made it a crime to ship illegal game across state lines, and the Lacey Act of 1907, which further regulated the handling of...
of Iowa
Iowa
Iowa is a state located in the Midwestern United States, an area often referred to as the "American Heartland". It derives its name from the Ioway people, one of the many American Indian tribes that occupied the state at the time of European exploration. Iowa was a part of the French colony of New...
.
Wickersham estimated 500 people in town, and another count estimated 1,000, with 387 houses under construction, six saloons, and no churches. Before spring arrived, Wickersham published the first newspaper in the settlement—the Fairbanks Miner—on a typewriter. It sold seven copies at $5 per copy. But even as the walls of Wickersham's courthouse were going up, dissatisfied miners were leaving the area. Hundreds left on rafts going downriver or steamers going to Dawson City. By June 1903, cabins on city lots were selling for as little as $10. Meanwhile, Barnette sold two-thirds of his store to the Alaska Commercial Company and arranged for the establishment of a post office at his settlement.
In fall 1903, the flood of miners leaving the Tanana Valley ended when major gold strikes were made north of Fairbanks. The gold was deeper than in the Klondike, and it had taken time to dig to it. At Cleary Creek, miner Jesse Noble discovered what became the richest vein of gold in Alaska. Gold extraction was slow, because almost no heavy machinery was available to remove the overburden
Overburden
Overburden is the material that lies above an area of economic or scientific interest in mining and archaeology; most commonly the rock, soil, and ecosystem that lies above a coal seam or ore body. It is also known as 'waste' or 'spoil'...
above the layers of gold. The gold discoveries of 1903 reversed the trend of people away from the Tanana Valley. By Christmas 1903, there were between 1,500 and 1,800 miners in the valley. Another food shortage arose during the winter of 1903, alleviated only by the food Barnette had brought in after his trip to the Lower 48.
Despite the food shortage, more buildings were constructed. The Northern Commercial Company built a store to replace Barnette's cabin, and Wickersham recorded a wide range of businesses, including 500 houses and 1,200 people. To manage the growing population, the settlement held a vote on November 10, 1903 to decide whether to incorporate
Municipal corporation
A municipal corporation is the legal term for a local governing body, including cities, counties, towns, townships, charter townships, villages, and boroughs. Municipal incorporation occurs when such municipalities become self-governing entities under the laws of the state or province in which...
Fairbanks as a town or not. The vote passed, and Barnette was sworn in as the city's first mayor on the next day.
City of Fairbanks
Barnette's first action as mayor was to write a letter to Washington, D.C., asking the federal government to sell its military food stores from posts near the town, thus alleviating the food shortage. This move was followed by others: licensing a telephone company, providing for garbage collection, fire protection, and a one-room school (which shut down later that winter for lack of funds). Barnette used his position to grant long-term contracts for city utilities to members of his family. One of Barnette's brothers-in-law, James W. Hill, was given a 25-year contract to provide electricity, drinking water, and steam heat to the city. In 1904, Barnette arranged for regular shipments of supplies to Fairbanks, and the town continued to expand. In addition to the local telephone system, Fairbanks was connected to the outside world via the Washington-Alaska Military Cable and Telegraph System, which was expanded from Eagle to Nome in 1903 and passed through Fairbanks.Priest
A priest is a person authorized to perform the sacred rites of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particular, rites of sacrifice to, and propitiation of, a deity or deities...
s built the town's first church, Immaculate Conception Church. Also in 1904, construction of a railroad began in Fairbanks and Chena, its downstream neighbor. Low water on the Chena River prevented steamboats from reaching Fairbanks, so a railroad line was built from the Tanana River at Chena to Fairbanks and the mines north of town. Construction of the Tanana Mines Railroad (later the Tanana Valley Railroad) was finished to Fairbanks on July 17, 1905. Two new banks opened in 1905, as did the city's first greenhouse, and a new $10,000 bridge across the Chena River. In June 1905, the bridge caused the biggest flood in the young city's history when a bridge upstream of it collapsed and the resulting wreckage caught in the bridge and blocked the river's flow. The river rose, flooding the town, and the bridge had to be dynamite
Dynamite
Dynamite is an explosive material based on nitroglycerin, initially using diatomaceous earth , or another absorbent substance such as powdered shells, clay, sawdust, or wood pulp. Dynamites using organic materials such as sawdust are less stable and such use has been generally discontinued...
d to halt the flood. The next year, a fire destroyed most of Fairbanks, and the damage was estimated at $1.5 million. The town was quickly rebuilt, and the town's first hospital, St. Joseph's
St. Joseph's Hospital (Fairbanks, Alaska)
St. Joseph's Hospital, the very first hospital in Fairbanks, Alaska was built in 1906.-History:Fairbanks was a frontier town when a Jesuit priest named Rev. Francis M. Monroe decided to build a church and hospital. The church stood in the heart of town, while the hospital, also named St...
, was built on the north bank of the Chena. Because the hospital was run by a Catholic religious order, Immaculate Conception Church was later transported across the Chena River and placed next to the hospital. In 1907, Barnette's bank was forced to temporarily close due to the Panic of 1907
Panic of 1907
The Panic of 1907, also known as the 1907 Bankers' Panic, was a financial crisis that occurred in the United States when the New York Stock Exchange fell almost 50% from its peak the previous year. Panic occurred, as this was during a time of economic recession, and there were numerous runs on...
and legal troubles. A new school was built, which housed 150 students. Other schools were built on the north side of the Chena River, which was separate from town.
In 1908, the U.S. Army Signal Corps built a radio telegraph tower in town, replacing the cable telegraph system to Valdez and Seattle. The 176 feet (53.6 m) tower was the tallest structure in town for decades. In 1909, Fairbanks gold production peaked at more than $9.5 million. The town saw its first library
George C. Thomas Memorial Library
George C. Thomas Memorial Library, also known as the former North Star Borough Library or AHRS FAI-004, was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1978....
open that year, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner is a morning daily newspaper that serves the city of Fairbanks, Alaska, the Fairbanks North Star Borough, the Denali Borough, and the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the United States state of Alaska. It is the farthest north daily newspaper in the United States, and...
, the city's longest-lived newspaper, began publishing.
Poor investments caused the bank founded by Barnette to fail
Bank failure
A bank failure occurs when a bank is unable to meet its obligations to its depositors or other creditors because it has become insolvent or too illiquid to meet its liabilities. More specifically, a bank usually fails economically when the market value of its assets declines to a value that is...
in January 1911, at a time when it held more than $1 million in deposits from Fairbanks residents. In Fairbanks, the common belief was that Barnette had embezzled money from the bank. Although he was found guilty of only one of 11 charges against him, Barnette had a poor reputation in Fairbanks. For years afterward, Fairbanks newspapers referred to any robbery as "Barnetting" the subject.
The accusations against Barnette were big news in a town that had little crime. Gambling and drinking were common throughout town. Prostitution was restricted to a district separated from the rest of town by a wooden fence. The "line," as it was known, operated until the 1950s with the tacit approval of city authorities. Fights were common, but gunplay was not. As one miner recalled, not more than one man in 500 carried a gun, and while fisticuffs were common, gunfights were not. This was backed up by the experience of Northern Commercial Company stagecoach drivers, who carried more than $7 million overland during a 12-year period without a single incident.
Decline
In 1911, the Fairbanks Commercial Club, a group of businesses, created the slogan "Fairbanks, Alaska's Golden Heart." The slogan remains the city's motto today. In that year, Fairbanks boasted a population of more than 3,500 people, making it the largest city in Alaska. Thousands more people lived in mining camps outside the city itself. But 1910 marked the beginning of a decline in Fairbanks' fortunes. That year, less than $6 million in gold was produced—two-thirds the total of the previous year. By 1911, production was half what it had been in 1909. In 1918, it was ten percent of what it had been nine years before. The decline in production caused businesses to go out of business. Stores that sold to miners closed, as did those that supported the mines directly. World War IWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
caused a further decline as the town's young men were drafted
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...
and sent overseas. Economic effects also were felt. A local judge later stated that the war "set Fairbanks back by 10 years" because it dried up construction and sent men overseas. After the war, the 1918 flu pandemic was particularly virulent in Alaska; it killed between 2,000 and 3,000 people in the territory. By 1923, the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner estimated there were fewer than 1,000 people in the city, and almost none at the mining camps beyond town.
Slowing the decline
Although Fairbanks was in decline, two major projects mitigated the worst effects of the post-gold rush slump: construction of the Alaska RailroadAlaska Railroad
The Alaska Railroad is a Class II railroad which extends from Seward and Whittier, in the south of the state of Alaska, in the United States, to Fairbanks , and beyond to Eielson Air Force Base and Fort Wainwright in the interior of that state...
and the creation of the University of Alaska.
Alaska Railroad
In 1906, L.A. Nadeau of the Northern Pacific RailroadNorthern Pacific Railway
The Northern Pacific Railway was a railway that operated in the west along the Canadian border of the United States. Construction began in 1870 and the main line opened all the way from the Great Lakes to the Pacific when former president Ulysses S. Grant drove in the final "golden spike" in...
predicted a railroad link to the ocean would allow gold miners to bring in heavy equipment and process large amounts of low-grade ore. "Not only will the cost of living be cheaper to the miner, but he will be able to get his heavy machinery at a price low enough to enable him to work a vast quantity of low-grade ground, which cannot be touched under present conditions." Eight years after that remark, the U.S. Congress appropriated $35 million for construction of the Alaska Railroad system. News of the appropriation set off celebrations among Fairbanks residents who hoped its construction would prove a boon for the local economy.
In 1917, the Alaska Railroad purchased the Tanana Valley Railroad, which had suffered from the wartime economic problems. The railroad line was extended westward, until it reached the town of Nenana
Nenana, Alaska
Nenana is a Home Rule City in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska. Nenana lies at the juncture of the Nenana River and the Tanana River. The population was 402 at the 2000 census. "Nenana" means 'a good place to camp between two rivers.'-History...
and a construction party working north from Ship Creek, later renamed Anchorage
Anchorage, Alaska
Anchorage is a unified home rule municipality in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the northernmost major city in the United States...
. Until the railroad was finished and coal from Healy
Healy, Alaska
Healy is a census-designated place in and the borough seat of Denali Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 971 at the 2007 census.-Geography:Healy is located at ....
became available, Fairbanks burned wood as a heating source and to provide electricity. In 1913, the town burned between 12,000 and 14,000 cords of wood, with the Northern Commercial Company (owners of the power plant) burning 8,500 cords alone.
President Warren G. Harding
Warren G. Harding
Warren Gamaliel Harding was the 29th President of the United States . A Republican from Ohio, Harding was an influential self-made newspaper publisher. He served in the Ohio Senate , as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio and as a U.S. Senator...
visited Fairbanks in 1923 as part of a trip to hammer in the ceremonial final spike of the railroad at Nenana. The rail yards of the Tanana Valley Railroad were converted for use by the Alaska Railroad, and Fairbanks became the northern end of the line and its second-largest depot.
University of Alaska
One year before Harding's visit to Fairbanks, the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines (today known as the University of Alaska FairbanksUniversity of Alaska Fairbanks
The University of Alaska Fairbanks, located in Fairbanks, Alaska, USA, is the flagship campus of the University of Alaska System, and is abbreviated as Alaska or UAF....
), opened its doors to six students. The school was thought up by James Wickersham, who had risen to become Alaska's delegate to Congress. In 1915, Wickersham gained approval of a bill funding the college from the 63rd United States Congress
63rd United States Congress
- House of Representatives:*Democratic : 291 *Republican : 134*Progressive : 9*Independent : 1TOTAL members: 435-Senate:*President of the Senate: Thomas R. Marshall*President pro tempore: James P. Clarke-Senate:...
. After the bill was approved, he traveled to Fairbanks and selected a site on a hill four miles west of Fairbanks, in what is today College, Alaska
College, Alaska
College is a census-designated place in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. It is part of the Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 13,493 in 2007....
. On July 4, 1915, acting "without the authority of law," he laid the cornerstone for the school.
The site for the school was directly north of the U.S. Agricultural Experimental Station (Tanana Valley), an experimental farm created by Charles Christian Georgeson
Charles Christian Georgeson
Charles Christian Georgeson was a agronomist, born on Langeland, Denmark.Georgeson immigrated to the United States in 1873 to attend college, graduating from Michigan State College in 1878...
in 1907. The farm was a project by the U.S. Department of Agriculture to explore the agricultural potential of Interior Alaska. By 1916, one year after the founding of the University of Alaska, the experimental farm employed 20 people. As mining declined in the Fairbanks area, some miners turned to homesteading. Under the Homestead Act
Homestead Act
A homestead act is one of three United States federal laws that gave an applicant freehold title to an area called a "homestead" – typically 160 acres of undeveloped federal land west of the Mississippi River....
, many miners applied for grants of land from the federal government and established farms around the city. A 1919 survey by the U.S. Geological Survey identified 94 homesteads within six miles of Fairbanks. Also listed were two tungsten mills and 16 gold mills.
Agriculture in the area was spurred by food and fodder shortages during the winters of 1913, 1915, and 1916. Fairbanks businessmen also encouraged the growth of farming. Wickersham provided more funding for the experimental farm, the Tanana Valley Railroad provided free grain seed acquired from an experimental farm in Sweden, and William Fentress Thompson, editor of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, wrote frequent editorials in favor of more farming. Prominent Fairbanks businessmen formed the Alaska Loyal League
Alaska Loyal League
The Alaska Loyal League was a small group of Fairbanks businessmen who were instrumental in supporting early Tanana Valley agriculture and enterprise. They included: A. Browning; George Coleman, manager of the Northern Commercial Company; F.S. Gordon, a merchant; H.B. Parkin, Fairbanks Meat Company...
, a group that encouraged farming. Farmers also created the Tanana Valley State Fair in 1924 to demonstrate their agricultural success. It is Alaska's oldest state fair and still operates today. Despite these moves, the agriculture movement in Fairbanks had only limited success. A farmers' bank established in 1917 to provide loans for equipment purchases went out of business two years later, and although the Alaska Railroad allowed for cheaper shipment of tractors and other agricultural equipment, it also permitted a steady supply of food shipments to Fairbanks. In 1929, Alaska farms met only about 10 percent of the state's food demand. By 1931, the University of Alaska had grown to the point that the experimental farm was annexed by the school.
Dredging era
After the completion of the Alaska Railroad, it became economically feasible to bring in heavy equipment and build gold dredgeGold dredge
A gold dredge is a placer mining machine that extracts gold from sand, gravel, and dirt using water and mechanical methods.The original gold dredges were large, multi-story machines built in the first half of the 1900s....
s to work the large amount of low-grade ore that remained after the Fairbanks Gold Rush. The best example of this is the construction of Davidson Ditch
Davidson Ditch
Davidson Ditch is a conduit built in the 1920s to supply water to gold mining dredges in central Alaska. It was the first large-scale pipeline construction project in Alaska, and lessons learned in its construction were applied to the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System...
, a 90 miles (144.8 km) aqueduct built between 1924 and 1929 to provide water for gold dredging. Fairbanks Exploration Company (FE Co.), a division of the United States Smelting, Refining and Mining Company, built both the aqueduct and many of the dredges that used its water to process ore. Large-scale dredging began in 1928, and FE Co. became the town's biggest employer. It built the biggest power plant in Alaska to provide electricity for the dredges, and it built pumping stations to provide them with water from the Chena and other rivers.
In 1933, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt fixed the price of gold at $35 per ounce
Ounce
The ounce is a unit of mass with several definitions, the most commonly used of which are equal to approximately 28 grams. The ounce is used in a number of different systems, including various systems of mass that form part of the imperial and United States customary systems...
. This price increase encouraged mining and insulated Fairbanks from the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. When Roosevelt called for a bank holiday
Bank Holiday
A bank holiday is a public holiday in the United Kingdom or a colloquialism for public holiday in Ireland. There is no automatic right to time off on these days, although the majority of the population is granted time off work or extra pay for working on these days, depending on their contract...
to alleviate the worst effects of the depression, Fairbanks banks declined, saying they didn't need one. Large-scale dredging peaked in 1940, when 209,000 ounces of gold were produced in the Fairbanks area. After the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
in the United States, the federal government closed most gold-mining operations, deeming them unessential to the war effort.
In 1932, Fairbanks' two-story school, built in 1907, burned to the ground. A new, $150,000 three-story concrete art deco
Art Deco
Art deco , or deco, is an eclectic artistic and design style that began in Paris in the 1920s and flourished internationally throughout the 1930s, into the World War II era. The style influenced all areas of design, including architecture and interior design, industrial design, fashion and...
building was proposed as a replacement, and after heated debate, a $100,000 bond measure was approved in 1933. On January 22, 1934, the new school opened. It had space for about 500 students, but the town's growth required renovation and expansion in 1939 and 1948.
Paving Fairbanks
Until 1938, Fairbanks lacked paved streets. The town's dirt roads turned to dust in summer and thick mud in spring and fall, causing problems as Fairbanks' population grew in the 1930s. In 1937, the mayor of Fairbanks, E.B. Collins, proposed using a federal grant and city bonds to pave the roads, but he was turned down by voters. The next year, he tried again and was successful. By 1940, the first 0.25 mile (0.402335 km) of paved road was complete.Aviation
About the time of the completion of the Alaska Railroad and the beginning of the dredging era in Fairbanks, Alaska's aviation industry began to take off. The first airplane flight in Alaska took place in Fairbanks on July 4, 1913, when a barnstormerBarnstorming
Barnstorming was a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s in which stunt pilots would perform tricks with airplanes, either individually or in groups called a flying circus. Barnstorming was the first major form of civil aviation in the history of flight...
flew from a field south of town. The aircraft had been crated and sent from Seattle via Skagway and Whitehorse. The pilot subsequently tried to sell the aircraft, but had no takers. Alaska's first commercial aircraft didn't arrive until June 1923, when Noel Wien
Noel Wien
Noel Wien was an American pioneer aviator. He was the founder of Wien Air Alaska, Alaska's first airline.-Biography:...
began flying a Curtiss JN-4
Curtiss JN-4
The Curtiss JN-4 "Jenny" was one of a series of "JN" biplanes built by the Curtiss Aeroplane Company of Hammondsport, New York, later the Curtiss Aeroplane and Motor Company. Although the Curtiss JN series was originally produced as a training aircraft for the U.S...
on mail routes between Fairbanks and isolated communities. From Fairbanks, Wien became the first person to fly to Anchorage and cross the Arctic Circle in an airplane.
Given Alaska's limited road and rail infrastructure, the territorial government saw the advantages of aerial transport. In 1925, the territorial legislature authorized the spending of up to $40,000 per year on airfield construction. Between that year and 1927, more than 20 airfields were built. By 1930, Alaska had more than 100. In Fairbanks, airplanes flew from a field that doubled as a baseball diamond until 1931, when the city bought the field, installed infrastructure, and named it Weeks Field
Weeks Field
Weeks Field was the first airport for the city of Fairbanks, Alaska. It was built in 1923 on the site of a baseball field named Weeks Ball Park, which had served as an impromptu landing strip for airplanes prior to the construction of the airport. On July 4, 1923, Carl Ben Eielson flew the first...
. By the late 1930s, there were more than four dozen airplanes in the town of about 3,000 people, giving Fairbanks the reputation of having the most airplanes per capita in the world. Because of Fairbanks' location halfway between New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
, it became a crucial stop on the first around-the-world flights. Wiley Post
Wiley Post
Wiley Hardeman Post was a famed American aviator, the first pilot to fly solo around the world. Also known for his work in high altitude flying, Post helped develop one of the first pressure suits. His Lockheed Vega aircraft, the Winnie Mae, was on display at the National Air and Space Museum's...
's 1933 solo circumnavigation stopped in Fairbanks, as did Howard Hughes
Howard Hughes
Howard Robard Hughes, Jr. was an American business magnate, investor, aviator, engineer, film producer, director, and philanthropist. He was one of the wealthiest people in the world...
' 1938 effort.
Military flights also used Fairbanks as a base. In 1920, the first flight from the continental United States to Alaska used Fairbanks as a base. In 1934, a flight of Martin B-10
Martin B-10
The Martin B-10 was the first all-metal monoplane bomber to go into regular use by the United States Army Air Corps, entering service in June 1934...
bombers flew from Washington, D.C. to Fairbanks, ostensibly to demonstrate the feasibility of long-range bomber deployments. In reality, the bombers flew photographic missions intended to scout locations for military airfields to be built in the territory.
Military era
In his final public appearance, U.S. Army General Billy Mitchell said, "I believe that, in the future, whoever holds Alaska will hold the world... I think it is the most important strategic place in the world." That year, Congress passed the Wilcox National Air Defense Act, which provided for a new airbase in Alaska for cold-weather testing and training. A survey team visited Fairbanks in 1936, and in 1937, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt issued Executive Order 7596, which set aside 6 square miles (15.5 km²) of public land east of Fairbanks for the new airbase, which was named Ladd Army Airfield after Army pilot Arthur Ladd. Preliminary construction began in summer 1939, a few days before Germany invaded PolandInvasion of Poland (1939)
The Invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign or 1939 Defensive War in Poland and the Poland Campaign in Germany, was an invasion of Poland by Germany, the Soviet Union, and a small Slovak contingent that marked the start of World War II in Europe...
to start World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. The first runway was finished in September 1940, and the base was dedicated then, before most of the buildings were complete.
In the first winter after the dedication, soldiers practiced flying and servicing aircraft in subzero weather conditions. More than 1,000 workers, most of whom were hired from outside Alaska, worked on the project through 1941. Despite these outside workers, the construction effort caused unemployment to almost vanish in Fairbanks, causing a large demand for labor. Fairbanks' economy grew, and the city's first radio station, KFAR
KFAR
KFAR is a commercial radio station programming news/talk in Fairbanks, Alaska, United States, broadcasting on 660 AM. It airs Fox News Radio and carries national radio programs thru Compass Media Networks, Premiere Radio Networks and Westwood One, amongst others. Of the two AM news/talk stations...
, began broadcasting on October 1, 1939. Hangars and base buildings were completed in summer 1941, but the second winter of cold-weather testing was interrupted by the Japanese
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
.
World War II
Fairbanks received word of the attack on Pearl Harbor via civilian shortwave radioShortwave
Shortwave radio refers to the upper MF and all of the HF portion of the radio spectrum, between 1,800–30,000 kHz. Shortwave radio received its name because the wavelengths in this band are shorter than 200 m which marked the original upper limit of the medium frequency band first used...
operators who passed the news to the U.S. Army base. More than 200 civil defense
Civil defense
Civil defense, civil defence or civil protection is an effort to protect the citizens of a state from military attack. It uses the principles of emergency operations: prevention, mitigation, preparation, response, or emergency evacuation, and recovery...
volunteers immediately signed up for work that included orchestrating a town blackout
Blackout (wartime)
A blackout during war, or apprehended war, is the practice of collectively minimizing outdoor light, including upwardly directed light. This was done in the 20th century to prevent crews of enemy aircraft from being able to navigate to their targets simply by sight, for example during the London...
, blocking town airfields, and making emergency plans to evacuate the town in the event of an attack. In June 1942, the invasion of the Aleutian Islands and the bombing of Dutch Harbor
Battle of Dutch Harbor
The Battle of Dutch Harbor took place on 3-4 June 1942, and was a minor air and naval battle of the Aleutian Islands Campaign of World War II between Imperial Japanese Navy and United States Army and Navy forces.-Overview:...
intensified the war's effect on Fairbanks. Ladd Field's cold-weather testing detachment was disbanded as its soldiers were used to bolster Alaska defenses at other locations.
During summer 1942, more soldiers arrived in Fairbanks to replace those moved away from town. Fairbanks residents were drafted to work at Ladd Field because the U.S. Army believed Alaskans were best experienced in cold-weather work. After gold mining was suspended during the war, the Army leased FE Co. offices and requisitioned supplies from Fairbanks businesses. Wartime demand and the draft caused a severe labor shortage in Fairbanks, and supplies of various food and commercial products were interrupted beyond the wartime rationing in the rest of the country. Crime also increased, and because the U.S. Army was placed in wartime control of the Alaska Territory, all newspapers and letters to and from Fairbanks were censored.
To alleviate shortages and supply the war effort, the U.S. Army and the Canadian government began construction of the Alaska Highway
Alaska Highway
The Alaska Highway was constructed during World War II for the purpose of connecting the contiguous U.S. to Alaska through Canada. It begins at the junction with several Canadian highways in Dawson Creek, British Columbia and runs to Delta Junction, Alaska, via Whitehorse, Yukon...
, which connected the Canadian road network to Alaska's Richardson Highway
Richardson Highway
The Richardson Highway is a highway in the U.S. state of Alaska, running 368 miles from Valdez to Fairbanks. It is marked as Alaska Route 4 from Valdez to Delta Junction and as Alaska Route 2 from there to Fairbanks. It is also connects segments of Alaska Route 1 between the Glenn Highway and the...
and Fairbanks. The highway was completed in fall 1942 and regular traffic began in 1943. As work on the highway took place, war supplies were already reaching Fairbanks through the air. The Northwest Staging Route
Northwest Staging Route
The Northwest Staging Route was a series of airstrips, airport and radio ranging stations built in Alberta, British Columbia, the Yukon and Alaska during World War II. It was known in the Soviet Union as Alsib ....
, a chain of airfields, ended at Fairbanks. Starting in February 1942, supply aircraft began landing in Fairbanks to supply the war effort in Alaska. In summer 1942, negotiations between the United States and the Soviet Union resulted in an extension of the Lend-Lease effort to Russia. Using the Northwest Staging Route, aircraft were flown from Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls, Montana
Great Falls is a city in and the county seat of Cascade County, Montana, United States. The population was 58,505 at the 2010 census. It is the principal city of the Great Falls, Montana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all of Cascade County...
, to Ladd Field. At Ladd Field, the aircraft were turned over to Soviet pilots, who flew them to Nome and on to the Soviet Union. Fairbanks was chosen as a transfer location because it was more protected from potential Japanese attack than Nome.
Starting in fall 1942, large numbers of Soviet soldiers arrived in Fairbanks to work with the U.S. soldiers already in the town. The massive Lend-Lease effort required additional facilities to be built in and near Fairbanks. Ladd Field expanded in size, and the grounds of the U.S. Army post expanded until it met the city limits of Fairbanks. The University of Alaska, which saw most of its students taken up by the draft, provided office and dormitory space for U.S. and Soviet soldiers. Its professors also contributed to the war effort with specially created Russian language classes. Russian airmen were regular customers of Fairbanks stores, and they bought large amounts of consumer goods unavailable at home. To meet demand when Ladd Field was unusable due to fog, an airfield now known as Eielson Air Force Base
Eielson Air Force Base
Eielson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base located approximately southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska and just southeast of Moose Creek, Alaska....
was built southeast of Fairbanks. Although there were some conflicts between Soviet and U.S. soldiers and civilians, Lend-Lease operations in Fairbanks continued through the end of the war, and when Lend-Lease ended in September 1945, 7,926 aircraft and tons of cargo had been transferred to Soviet officials in Fairbanks.
Cold War
By fall 1945, Ladd Field had grown to encompass almost 5,000 military personnel and acres of runways and buildings. While there was a brief lull in activity as the U.S. Army demobilized after World War II, activity in Fairbanks remained high as the Cold War began. The population of the Fairbanks area grew by 240 percent between 1940 and 1950, then doubled between 1950 and 1953. This growth strained the city's infrastructure: schools, water, power, sewer, and telephone systems were all overstressed by new arrivals and expansion. Suburbs sprang up around Fairbanks, which began annexing them in turn. In 1952, the city's boundaries grew from 1.3 square miles (3.4 km²) to 2.4 square miles (6.2 km²), with another 1 square miles (2.6 km²) soon after. More than a dozen subdivisions and housing developments filled the area between Fairbanks city limits and College, and the city's border advanced westward until it met the College city limit. The burgeoning town stopped to commemorate its roots with the Golden Days Festival, a weeklong celebration of Fairbanks history that started to mark the 50th anniversary of the discovery of gold. The annual festival continues today.The University of Alaska also grew during this period. In 1946, Congress appropriated money for construction of a Geophysical Institute
Geophysical Institute
The Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks conducts research into space physics and aeronomy; atmospheric sciences; snow, ice, and permafrost; seismology; volcanology; and tectonics and sedimentation. It was founded in 1946 by the United States Congress...
to study Arctic phenomena such as the aurora borealis. The institute was established in 1949 and spurred the university's growth as the GI Bill simultaneously boosted the student population. Elementary education also developed as the Fairbanks school district (Today the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District) was established in 1947 to collect school taxes from areas outside city limits that were sending students to Fairbanks' school. The Golden Valley Electric Association, an electrical cooperative, was founded in the 1940s to provide electricity to areas outside Fairbanks city limits. In 1953, it bought the FE Co. power plant that served Fairbanks and provided electricity to customers as varied as Fairbanks' second radio station, KFRB, and the town's largest farm, Creamer's Dairy.
A new airport opened on Oct. 15, 1951 to replace Weeks Field, which had been encroached upon by the town's growth, including Denali Elementary School, the town's first new school since the 1930s. The new Fairbanks International Airport
Fairbanks International Airport
Fairbanks International Airport is a state-owned public-use airport located three miles southwest of the central business district of Fairbanks, a city in the Fairbanks North Star Borough of the U.S. state of Alaska....
began serving DC-6
Douglas DC-6
The Douglas DC-6 is a piston-powered airliner and transport aircraft built by the Douglas Aircraft Company from 1946 to 1958. Originally intended as a military transport near the end of World War II, it was reworked after the war to compete with the Lockheed Constellation in the long-range...
s, which cut the travel time from Seattle to six hours from eight. The new airport also attracted an over-the-pole
North Pole
The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is, subject to the caveats explained below, defined as the point in the northern hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface...
test flight by Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines System
Scandinavian Airlines or SAS, previously Scandinavian Airlines System, is the flag carrier of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, and the largest airline in Scandinavia....
, but the airline eventually chose Anchorage as a refueling point for flights from Stockholm
Stockholm
Stockholm is the capital and the largest city of Sweden and constitutes the most populated urban area in Scandinavia. Stockholm is the most populous city in Sweden, with a population of 851,155 in the municipality , 1.37 million in the urban area , and around 2.1 million in the metropolitan area...
to Tokyo
Tokyo
, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
. Ground transportation also improved in Fairbanks, as a major program to pave downtown roads began in 1953 with the goal of coating 30 blocks. New military facilities sprang up around Fairbanks and further away. The city was a staging area for construction of the Distant Early Warning Line
Distant Early Warning Line
The Distant Early Warning Line, also known as the DEW Line or Early Warning Line, was a system of radar stations in the far northern Arctic region of Canada, with additional stations along the North Coast and Aleutian Islands of Alaska, in addition to the Faroe Islands, Greenland, and Iceland...
, the Ballistic Missile Early Warning System at Clear Air Station, and several Nike Hercules air defense missile batteries.
The first skyscrapers were built in Fairbanks during this period: the eight-story Northward Building and the 100 feet (30.5 m) Hill (later Polaris) Building were built in the first half of the 1950s. The first traffic lights were installed during the same period. Fairbanks' first television station, KTVF
KTVF
-History:The station signed on the air in February 1955 as the first television station serving what at the time was the smallest television market in the United States...
Channel 11, began broadcasting on February 17, 1955. The city's first dedicated high school, Lathrop High
Lathrop High School
Lathrop High School is a public high school in Fairbanks in the U.S. State of Alaska, part of the Fairbanks North Star Borough School District. It is named for early Alaska businessman Austin E. "Cap" Lathrop. Lathrop is the largest high school in Fairbanks....
(originally Fairbanks High), also began operating in 1955. In the four years that followed, four new elementary schools opened, taking the burden off Main School, which became Main Junior High School.
Statehood
During the 1950s, agitation grew in Alaska for the territory to become a stateU.S. state
A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...
. Alaskans could not vote in presidential elections and had a territorial legislature with limited powers. Efforts to lobby federal legislators for an Alaska statehood bill met with limited success, so prominent territorial officials decided to draft a state constitution to prove Alaska's readiness to become a state. On November 8, 1955, 55 elected delegates gathered at the University of Alaska to begin drafting a state constitution. The resulting debates lasted more than two months and caused a sensation in Fairbanks. Debates of the constitutional convention were broadcast on Fairbanks radio, and the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner dedicated daily reports to the progress of the convention. On February 5, 1956, the delegates signed the constitution in front of 1,000 people who crowded into the University of Alaska gymnasium. The building where deliberations took place was subsequently named Constitution Hall.
On June 30, 1958, the U.S. Senate voted 64–20 to accept Alaska as a state. The news set off massive celebrations in Fairbanks. Residents set off fireworks, an impromptu parade took place down Cushman Street, the city's main road, and an attempt to dye the Chena River gold in celebration instead turned it green. The celebration was capped when residents used weather balloons to lift a 30 feet (9.1 m) wide wooden star painted gold and emblazoned with "49" into the air. The balloons lifted it, then drifted into power lines, causing a 16-minute power outage across the city.
President Dwight Eisenhower officially signed the new state into the United States on January 3, 1959, putting the Alaska constitution into effect. The new state's constitution called for the creation of borough governments to help manage the new state. Fairbanks and other areas were reluctant to impose an additional layer of government on themselves, and balked. In 1963, the Alaska Legislature
Alaska Legislature
The Alaska Legislature is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is a bicameral institution, consisting of the lower Alaska House of Representatives, with 40 members, and the upper house Alaska Senate, with 20 members...
passed the Mandatory Borough Act, which required the eight most populous areas of the state to form organized boroughs by 1964. Students from Fairbanks schools chose "North Star" as the Fairbanks' borough's name, and the Fairbanks North Star Borough came into existence on January 1, 1964.
The years after statehood saw the military boom continue to boost the Fairbanks economy and growth of the city. Fairbanks International Airport's runway was lengthened to 11,500 feet to accommodate jet aircraft. The George Parks Highway
George Parks Highway
The George Parks Highway , usually called simply the Parks Highway, runs 323 miles from the Glenn Highway 35 miles north of Anchorage to Fairbanks in the Alaska Interior...
was built from Fairbanks to Anchorage and Denali National Park, encouraging tourism. Homes were built on the hills to the north of Fairbanks for the first time, roads were repaved and smoothed, and sidewalks replaced dirt paths. The growth had a price, however. Many of the structures built during Fairbanks' founding were torn down in the name of urban renewal
Urban renewal
Urban renewal is a program of land redevelopment in areas of moderate to high density urban land use. Renewal has had both successes and failures. Its modern incarnation began in the late 19th century in developed nations and experienced an intense phase in the late 1940s – under the rubric of...
. The first home built in Fairbanks was demolished, as were the final homes remaining on "the line", Fairbanks' prostitution district.
In 1960, the U.S. Air Force made plans to close Ladd Airfield and transfer its functions to nearby Eielson Air Force Base and Elmendorf Air Force Base
Elmendorf Air Force Base
Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson is a United States military facility adjacent to Anchorage, the largest city in Alaska. It is an amalgamation of the former United States Air Force Elmendorf Air Force Base and the United States Army Fort Richardson, which were merged in 2010.-Overview:The...
near Anchorage. When the decision was publicly announced, it was met with almost unanimous opposition by Fairbanks residents and businesses in the area. Although the Air Force held firm in its decision to transfer out of the base, the U.S. Army took over the post on January 1, 1961 and renamed it Fort Wainwright
Fort Wainwright
Fort Wainwright is a United States Army post adjacent to Fairbanks in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is part of the Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
.
The arts scene in Fairbanks also grew during this time. The Fairbanks Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1959, and the Fairbanks Drama Association was created in 1963. The Alaska Goldpanners
Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks
The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks are a collegiate summer baseball team which was founded in 1960 as an independent barnstorming team. The Pan-Alaska Goldpanners were charter members of the Alaska Baseball League at the league's inception in 1974. The Goldpanners play their home games at Growden...
baseball team was founded in 1959 as the city's first professional sports team. The next year, the Goldpanners hosted their first annual Midnight Sun Baseball Game, a tradition that had been conducted since 1905 and continues under the Goldpanners' auspices today. Through the 1960s, Fairbanks became much more like small towns in the Lower 48 as communications, transportation, and utilities improved.
The Great Flood
In 1967, Alaska celebrated 100 years since its purchase by the United States from Russia. To celebrate the event, Fairbanksans built A-67 (later Alaskaland and today Pioneer Park), a theme park celebrating the history of Fairbanks and Alaska. At a site away from downtown Fairbanks, it features pioneer cabins, historic exhibits, and the steamer SS Nenana, one of the steamboats that traveled Interior Alaska rivers during the gold rush era. The summer exposition that opened the park in July 1967 was attended by U.S. Vice President Hubert HumphreyHubert Humphrey
Hubert Horatio Humphrey, Jr. , served under President Lyndon B. Johnson as the 38th Vice President of the United States. Humphrey twice served as a United States Senator from Minnesota, and served as Democratic Majority Whip. He was a founder of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and...
but was plagued by rain, financial problems, and low attendance.
One month after the celebration of Alaska's centennial, the worst disaster in Fairbanks history took place. In July 1967, Fairbanks received 3.34 inches (8.5 cm) of rain, almost double the July average of 1.84 inches (4.7 cm). Then between August 11 and August 13, Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley received the heaviest rainfall in recorded history. In the 24 hours prior to noon on August 12, 3.42 inches (8.7 cm) of rain fell. Average rainfall for the entire month of August is 2.2 inches (5.6 cm). In August 1967, 6.2 inches (15.7 cm) fell on Fairbanks and the Tanana Valley.
The unprecedented rainfall turned the Chena River into a torrent. On August 14, it passed flood stage
Flood stage
Flood stage is the level at which the surface of a river, creek, or other body of water has risen to a sufficient level to cause damage or affects use of man-made structures...
and continued to rise. Because no hydrological
Hydrology
Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability...
equipment had been installed upstream of Fairbanks, residents were unaware of the flood's scale. All day and night on August 14, the water rose. It inundated the A-67 site and volunteers sank the SS Nenana to keep it from floating on the rising waters and damaging buildings. In downtown Fairbanks, hundreds of volunteers built a sandbag dike around St. Joseph's Hospital to no avail. As the water crested the emergency dike, doctors, nurses, and patients evacuated to the University of Alaska on College Hill.
The university, which is built on high ground, served as an evacuation point and emergency shelter for thousands of flood refugees. The civil defense director of the university expected between 700 and 800 people to take shelter at the university. Between 7,000 and 8,000 showed up as the water rose through August 14 and 15 and crammed into facilities designed to house just over 1,000 students. A helipad
Helipad
Helipad is a common abbreviation for helicopter landing pad, a landing area for helicopters. While helicopters are able to operate on a variety of relatively flat surfaces, a fabricated helipad provides a clearly marked hard surface away from obstacles where a helicopter can safely...
was set up in a parking lot, and helicopters from Eielson Air Force Base ferried supplies to the refugees. Fairbanks' power plant was flooded, so the university depended on its physical plant to provide electricity for the refugees. When the rising water threatened to flood the plant, hundreds of the refugees massed to build barricades and pump out the plant's basement.
The flood had a massive effect on Fairbanks. Four people were killed, and the damage ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars. It helped push the city's remaining farm, Creamer's Dairy, into bankruptcy, and it forced the closure of St. Joseph's Hospital. Fairbanks residents responded to the problems with aplomb. The annual Tanana Valley State Fair was postponed but not canceled. Seven thousand dollars were raised to buy Creamer's Dairy and turn it into a bird sanctuary. KTVF, one of the few town businesses to have flood insurance, rebuilt its studio and became the first Fairbanks TV station to broadcast in color, four months after the flood. When two bond measures to build a government-run hospital were turned down by Fairbanks voters, residents raised $2.6 million from private contributions and $6 million from the state and federal government to build Fairbanks Memorial Hospital.
In the flood's wake, the U.S. Congress passed the Flood Control Act of 1968, which provided funding for construction of the Chena River Lakes Flood Control Project on the Chena River upstream of Fairbanks. The project was built between 1973 and 1979 and diverts the Chena River into the Tanana River when the former river rises above a certain level. A chain of dikes were built along the Tanana River to prevent high water from that river flooding Fairbanks from the south. Many businesses benefited from low-interest federal loans to rebuild, which was done quickly. In 1969, Fairbanks was one of 11 cities honored as an "All-America City" by Look magazine
Look (American magazine)
Look was a bi-weekly, general-interest magazine published in Des Moines, Iowa from 1937 to 1971, with more of an emphasis on photographs than articles...
and the National League of Cities
National League of Cities
The National League of Cities is an American advocacy organization representing 19,000 cities, towns, and villages, and encompassing 49 state municipal leagues....
in honor of its success in recovering from the flood.
Oil boom
On March 12, 1968, an Atlantic Richfield drilling crew struck oil near Prudhoe BayPrudhoe Bay, Alaska
Prudhoe Bay or Sagavanirktok is a census-designated place located in North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2010 census, the population of the CDP was 2,174 people; however, at any given time several thousand transient workers support the Prudhoe Bay oil field...
, about 400 miles (643.7 km) north of Fairbanks. The resulting discovery of the Prudhoe Bay Oil Field
Prudhoe Bay oil field
Prudhoe Bay Oil Field is a large oil field on Alaska's North Slope. It is the largest oil field in both the United States and in North America, covering and originally containing approximately of oil.. BP. August 2006...
sparked a massive boom in Fairbanks, which was the nearest city to the field. After abortive attempts to transport oil from the field using seagoing tankers and airplanes, the oil companies developing the field decided to build a pipeline. Plans were set into motion and about to move forward when legal challenges halted the project in 1970. One set of challenges, those levied by Alaska Native groups in the path of the pipeline, was settled by passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act
The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, commonly abbreviated ANCSA, was signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon on December 23, 1971, the largest land claims settlement in United States history. ANCSA was intended to resolve the long-standing issues surrounding aboriginal land claims in...
in 1971. Thirteen major Alaska Native corporations and dozens of smaller ones were created to manage the cash payment and land grants distributed by the federal government under the act. In 1972, Fairbanks became the headquarters of Doyon, Limited
Doyon, Limited
Doyon, Limited is one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 in settlement of aboriginal land claims. Doyon, Limited was incorporated in Alaska on June 26, 1972...
, the largest of these corporations.
The Fairbanks economy, which briefly boomed in the period between the discovery of oil and the legal challenge, stagnated as legal challenges dragged on. The challenges were ended by approval of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act
Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act
The Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act is a United States federal law signed by Richard Nixon on November 16, 1973 that authorized the building of an oil pipeline connecting the North Slope of Alaska to Port Valdez...
in late 1973. When pipeline work began in early 1974, it sparked a boom in Fairbanks unlike anything since the years immediately after the city's founding. Alyeska Pipeline Service Company
Alyeska Pipeline Service Company
The Alyeska consortium refers to the major oil companies that own and operate the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System through the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company.-History:...
alone spent an estimated $800,000 a day in Fairbanks, which housed the construction headquarters on Fort Wainwright. Tens of thousands of workers poured into the city, straining the economy, infrastructure, and public works. The population of the Fairbanks North Star Borough increased by 40 percent between 1973 and 1976. The number of businesses in the area doubled during the same period.
This increase in population caused many adverse effects. Municipal Utilities Service, which operated telephone service, ran out of phone numbers and the waiting list for phone connections stretched to 1,500 entries. Electric demand was so high that the power company advised homeowners to buy generators to cope with frequent brownout
Brownout (electricity)
A brownout is an intentional drop in voltage in an electrical power supply system used for load reduction in an emergency. The reduction lasts for minutes or hours, as opposed to short-term voltage sag or dip. The term brownout comes from the dimming experienced by lighting when the voltage sags...
s. Home prices skyrocketed—a home that sold for $40,000 in 1974 was purchased for $80,000 in 1975. Home and apartment rentals were correspondingly squeezed upward by the rising prices and the demand from pipeline workers. Two-room log cabins with no plumbing rented for $500 per month. One two-bedroom home housed 45 pipeline workers who shared beds on a rotating schedule for $40 per week.
The skyrocketing prices were driven by the high salaries paid to pipeline workers, who were eager to spend their money. The high salaries caused a corresponding demand for higher wages among non-pipeline workers in Alaska. Non-pipeline businesses often could not keep up with the demand for higher wages, and job turnover was high. Yellow Cab in Fairbanks had a turnover rate of 800 percent; a nearby restaurant had a turnover rate of more than 1,000 percent. Many positions were filled by high school students promoted above their experience level. To meet the demand, Lathrop High School ran in two shifts: one in the morning and the other in the afternoon to teach students who also worked eight hours a day. More wages and more people meant higher demand for goods and services. Waiting in line became a fact of life in Fairbanks, and the Fairbanks McDonalds became No. 2 in the world for sales—behind only the recently opened Stockholm store. Alyeska and its contractors bought in bulk from local stores, causing shortages of everything from cars to tractor parts, water softener salt, batteries and ladders.
The large sums of money being made and spent caused an upsurge in crime and illicit activity. This was exacerbated because police officers and state troopers resigned in large groups to become pipeline security guards at wages far in excess of those available in public-sector jobs. Fairbanks' Second Avenue became a notorious hangout for prostitutes, and dozens of bars operated throughout town. In 1975, the Fairbanks Police Department estimated between 40 and 175 prostitutes were working in the city of 15,000 people. In the frigid temperatures of the winter months throughout the 1970s it was common to see street-walking prostitutes in downtown Fairbanks, clad fully from head-to-toe in luxuriant fur coats (and leaving everything to the imagination). Prostitutes brought pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
s, who then engaged in turf fights
Turf war
According to Wordnet the definition of a turf war is "a bitter struggle for territory or power or control or rights". For example: a turf war erupted between street gangs; the president's resignation was the result of a turf war with the board of directors. In larger companies Turf wars could...
. In 1976, police responded to a shootout between warring pimps who wielded automatic firearm
Automatic firearm
An automatic firearm is a firearm that loads another round mechanically after the first round has been fired.The term can be used to refer to semi-automatic firearms, which fire one shot per single pull of the trigger , or fully automatic firearms, which will continue to load and fire ammunition...
s. By and large, however, the biggest police issues were drunken brawls and fighting, resulting in a situation akin to the lawlessness associated with the "American Old West
American Old West
The American Old West, or the Wild West, comprises the history, geography, people, lore, and cultural expression of life in the Western United States, most often referring to the latter half of the 19th century, between the American Civil War and the end of the century...
Wild West" of the American frontier of popular lore.
By 1976, after the city's residents had endured a spike in crime, overstressed public infrastructure, and an influx of people unfamiliar with Alaska customs, 56 percent said the pipeline had changed Fairbanks for the worse. In downtown Fairbanks, overcrowding, traffic problems, and drunken rambunctiousness caused by pipeline workers pushed businesses to move into malls built away from downtown. New commercial centers like Gavora Mall, Bentley Mall
Bentley Mall
Bentley Mall is an enclosed shopping mall located in Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. It is notable as the northernmost mall in both the United States and North America.- Background :...
, and others away from the city center drove the construction of freeways that bypassed downtown Fairbanks.
Post-boom
Pipeline construction ended in 1977, beginning a gradual decline in Fairbanks' economy. The loss of construction spending was mostly offset by state spending. Taxes on oil flowing through the pipeline were spent on low-interest loans, grants, and business assistance that poured money into the city. To entice businesses to return to downtown Fairbanks, the city demolished many of the bars favored by pipeline workers and attempted to attract a hotel or major business to the location. This effort was unsuccessful, and the land remained vacant until the late 1990s. Redevelopment of the Fairbanks airport was more successful. A new terminal built in 1984 functioned until 2009.Bolstered by grants and subsidies, cultural events and institutions grew in Fairbanks. The Fairbanks Light Opera Theatre was created in 1970, and groups such as the Fairbanks Concert Association and the Northstar Ballet were also created at about the same time. Fairbanks largest arts event, the Summer Arts Festival, began in 1980 and continues today.
Sports facilities also benefited from the influx of state funding. The Big Dipper Ice Arena
Big Dipper Ice Arena
The Big Dipper Ice Arena, colloquially known as "The Big Dipper", is a multi-purpose arena in Fairbanks, Alaska. The arena is owned and operated by the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Originally constructed as an airplane hangar for the Lend-Lease program in Tanacross, southeast of Fairbanks, the...
, a converted airplane hangar moved from Tanacross in 1969, went through a $5 million renovation in 1981 that allowed it to host the Arctic Winter Games
Arctic Winter Games
The Arctic Winter Games is an international biennial celebration of circumpolar sports and culture.-Background:The Arctic Winter Games were founded in 1969 under the leadership of Governor Walter J. Hickel of Alaska, Stuart M. Hodgson, Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, and Yukon...
the next year. In 1979, the University of Alaska built the Patty Center, the first full indoor ice arena in Interior Alaska. The same year, the school started a NCAA Division I hockey team
Alaska Nanooks men's ice hockey
The Alaska Nanooks men's ice hockey team is a National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I college ice hockey program that represents the University of Alaska Fairbanks. The Nanooks are a member of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association . They play at the Carlson Center in Fairbanks,...
.
Wien Air Alaska
Wien Air Alaska
Wien Air Alaska was formed from Northern Consolidated Airlines and Wien Alaska Airways. The company was famous for being the first airline in Alaska, and one of the first in the United States.-History:...
, which had its headquarters in Fairbanks, was the state's largest private employer until it declared bankruptcy in 1983. The resulting shutdown cost hundreds of jobs in Fairbanks. This was a foretaste of more problems to come. In 1986, Saudi Arabia boosted oil production and oil prices plummeted. Alaska banks failed, construction came to a halt, and bankruptcies and foreclosures were common. A common practice in Fairbanks was for workers to drop their house keys off at local banks before catching a flight out of Alaska, the better to speed the foreclosure process. Although an expansion of Fort Wainwright helped the construction industry during this time, Fairbanks lost about 3,000 jobs between 1986 and 1989. The U.S. Army's 6th Infantry Division was stationed at Fort Wainwright in late 1987, but it was reduced to a single brigade
Brigade
A brigade is a major tactical military formation that is typically composed of two to five battalions, plus supporting elements depending on the era and nationality of a given army and could be perceived as an enlarged/reinforced regiment...
and renamed in 1993.
This period in the city's history also had some bright spots. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Alaska statehood, the city commissioned a 25-foot sculpture of an Alaska Native family signifying "Alaska's first family". The statue is the centerpiece of Golden Heart Plaza, which was dedicated in 1986 on the south bank of the Chena River in the middle of downtown Fairbanks. In 1984, President Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
and Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
briefly met in Fairbanks after it was realized that their two separate visits to Asia would cross over Alaska at the same time. Approximately 10,000 people attended their meeting, which was the largest gathering of people in Fairbanks' history.
Modern Fairbanks
As oil prices rose during the 1990s, Fairbanks' economy improved. The city was also boosted by the regrowth of gold mining in the area. The Fort Knox Gold Mine north of Fairbanks opened in 1997 after several years of development, and another gold prospect is likely to be developed in the next decade. The same year that Fort Knox Mine opened, Alyeska moved 300 jobs from Anchorage to Fairbanks, making the city the base of its operations for the first time in several decades.The U.S. military remains a large presence in Fairbanks. The U.S. 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division is based at Fort Wainwright, and Eielson Air Force Base remains a training and logistics hub for the U.S. Air Force. In 2009, the U.S. Army announced that it is considering basing 1,000 additional soldiers at Fort Wainwright because of its ample space.
Utilities and other services also have significantly changed since 1990. Fairbanks Memorial Hospital was renovated and expanded in 1976, 1985, 1995, and 2000. In 2009, the hospital opened a new heart care center during its latest expansion. Bassett Army Hospital on Fort Wainwright went through a $132 million renovation in 2005. To meet the demand for a convention center and large sporting arena, the city paid for construction of the Carlson Center
Carlson Center
The John A. Carlson Community Activity Center is a 6,443-seat multi-purpose arena in Fairbanks, Alaska. It is home to the University of Alaska Fairbanks Nanooks ice hockey team of the CCHA, the Fairbanks Grizzlies of the Indoor Football League, and is also the site used for the university's...
, a 5,000-seat arena that opened in 1990. In 1996, the city of Fairbanks privatized its utilities when the Municipal Utilities Service was sold to a private company. About $74 million from the sale was deposited into a savings account called the Fairbanks Permanent Fund, which was invested and managed in a fashion similar to the Alaska Permanent Fund
Alaska Permanent Fund
The Alaska Permanent Fund is a constitutionally established permanent fund, managed by a semi-independent corporation, established by Alaska in 1976, primarily by the efforts of then Governor Jay Hammond...
.
Books
- Boswell, John. History of Alaskan Operations of United States Smelting, Refining, and Mining Company. Fairbanks. University of Alaska, Mineral Industries Research Laboratory, 1979.
- Cashen, William. Farthest North College President. Charles E. Bunnell and the Early History of the University of Alaska. Fairbanks. University of Alaska Press, 1972.
- Cloe, John and Monaghan, Michael. Top Cover for America. Missoula, Montana. Pictorial Histories Publishing Co., 1984.
- Cole, Terrence. The Cornerstone on College Hill: An Illustrated History of the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Fairbanks. University of Alaska Press, 1994.
- Cooley, Richard. Fairbanks, Alaska: A Survey of Progress. Juneau. Alaska Development Board, June 1954.
- Davis, Neil. The College Hill Chronicles: How the University of Alaska Came of Age. Fairbanks. University of Alaska Foundation, 1992.
- Dixon, Mim. What Happened to Fairbanks? The Effects of the Trans-Alaska Oil Pipeline on the Community of Fairbanks, Alaska. Boulder, Colorado. Westview Press, 1978.
- Hedrick, Basil and Savage, Susan. Steamboats on the Chena. Fairbanks. Epicenter Press, 1988. ASIN B000OM7YIK
- Heller, Herbert L. Sourdough Sagas. New York. Ballantine Books, 1967.
- Hunt, William R. North of 53° New York. MacMillan Publishing Co., 1974.
- Huntington, James. On the Edge of Nowhere. New York. Crown Publishers, 1966.
- Kitchener, L.D. Flag Over the North, The Story of the Northern Commercial Company. Seattle. Superior Publishing Company, 1954.
- Kruse, John A. Fairbanks Community Survey. Fairbanks. Institute of Social and Economic Research, 1976.
- Movius, Phyllis. The Role of Women in the Founding and Development of Fairbanks, Alaska, 1903-1923. Fairbanks. University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1996.
- Naske, Claus, and Rowinski, L.J. Fairbanks: A Pictoral History. Virginia Beach, Virginia. The Donning Company, 1981.
- Nichols, Jeannette P. Alaska. Cleveland, Ohio. The Arthur H. Clark Company, 1924.
- Papp, Josephine E. and Phillips, Josie A. Like a Tree to the Soil: a history of farming in Alaska's Tanana Valley, 1903 to 1940. University of Alaska Press, 2008.
- Patty, Ernest. North Country Challenge. New York. David McKay, 1949.
- Potter, Jean. Alaska Under Arms. New York. Macmillan, 1942.
- Potter, Jean. The Flying North. New York. Macmillan, 1947.
- Rickard, T.A. Through the Yukon and Alaska. San Francisco. Mining and Scientific Press, 1909.
- Robe, Cecil. The Penetration of an Alaskan Frontier, The Tanana Valley and Fairbanks. Ph.D. dissertation, Yale University, 1943.
- Robinson, Richard W. Fairbanks Cabbies. Pennsylvania. Infinity Publishing, 2000. ISBN 978-0741403599
- Wharton, David. Alaska Gold Rush. Bloomington, Indiana. Indiana University Press, 1972.
- Wold, Jo Anne. This Old House. Anchorage. Alaska Northwest Publishing Co., 1976.
- Wold, Jo Anne. Fairbanks: The $200 Million Gold Rush Town. Fairbanks. Wold Press, 1971.
Periodicals
- Alaska Geographic. "Fairbanks", Alaska Geographic. 1995. Vol. 22, No. 1.
- Adams, C.W. "I Hauled 'Fairbanks' on a Sternwheeler." Alaska Sportsman, September 1961. pp. 14–15.
- Arnold, H.H. "Our Air Frontier in Alaska." National Geographic Magazine, October 1940. p. 487.
- Bruce, Julia. "Schools of the Tanana Valley." Alaska-Yukon Magazine, January 1909. pp. 263–271.
- "History of W.A.M.C.A.T." The Pathfinder of Alaska, March 1925. pp. 5–18; April 1925, pp. 3–21; May 1925, pp. 5–17.
- Koenig, Duane. "Ghost Railway in Alaska: The Story of the Tanana Valley Railroad." Pacific Northwest Quarterly, January 1954. pp. 8–12.
- Metheany, B.B. "Men and Endeavor in the Tanana Valley." Alaska-Yukon Magazine, January 1909. pp. 289–327.
- Paige, Sidney. "A Growing Camp in the Tanana Gold Fields, Alaska." National Geographic Magazine, March 1905. pp. 104–111.
- Patty, Stanton. "Felix Pedro -- A Mystery." Alaska Journal, Autumn 1971. pp. 11–15.
- Spring, Abe. "Early History of Tanana Valley." Alaska-Yukon Magazine, January 1909. pp. 259–262.