Fairbanks – historic settlement near the confluence of Chena and Tanana Rivers, now regional government, commerce, and transportation center
The late 1940s through the 1950s were a tumultuous period for Fairbanks. Military personnel and civilians poured into the area at an alarming pace as the Cold War with the Soviet Union heated up...
The development of the Slaterville area, on the north side of the Chena River across from downtown Fairbanks, started soon after the city was established. It is a residential area now but began as...
The 1980 book “Adventures in Alaska Journalism since 1903” relates that itinerant newspaper man, George M. Hill, freighted a small press from Dawson to Fairbanks in 1903. Once in Fairbanks he established the Weekly...
During and right after World War II there was a rapid influx of people into the Fairbanks area as the U.S. military expanded its presence. With the increased demands on the Alaska Railroad during...
Murphy Dome, named by prospectors in the early 1900s, is a 2,930-foot-tall mountain 20 miles northwest of Fairbanks. It is the highest point in the area, and with a summit almost 2,500 feet above...
Karl Reinhold Carlson was born in 1922 in British Columbia. His family moved to the United States in the 1930s, and Karl first came to Alaska in 1940 when his family moved to Kodiak,...
The Catholic Church sent Father Francis Monroe (Society of Jesus) to Alaska in 1894. He spent several years at missions along the Lower Yukon River before moving to the Upper Yukon after the Klondike...
Wilbur Brothers Sheet Metal, in one form or another, has been a family-owned Fairbanks business since 1914. During the winter of 1913-14, Alden Wilbur Sr., who was living in Seattle with his wife and...
With skiing’s long history in Nordic countries, it is not surprising the Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Finns entering Alaska at the turn of the 20th century brought their skiing traditions with them. According to...
The library at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks had an inauspicious beginning. According to Ted Ryberg (the university’s librarian in 1970), while the university’s predecessor, the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, began...
