Category: Fairbanks

The 1928 Stearman biplane that made Alaska aviation history

The 1928 Stearman biplane that made Alaska aviation history

The plane in the drawing is a 1928 Stearman C3B, registration number NC5415. It is, along with planes such as Ben Eielson’s World War I-era Curtis Wright JN-4 (on display at Fairbanks International Airport),...

1915 Tanana Chiefs Conference was one of the first steps toward Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

1915 Tanana Chiefs Conference was one of the first steps toward Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act

On July 5 and 6, 1915, one of the precursors to the 1971 meeting of Alaska Native elders to discuss the pending Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act was held in Fairbanks, in the George...

Small draglines like this were once common at placer gold-mining operations. They were used for excavating and for loading elevated sluice boxes.

P&H dragline at Pioneer Park represents early 1900s industrial innovation

When gold was discovered in Alaska at the end of the 19th century, it was individual miners who initially exploited the resource using picks and shovels and other rudimentary equipment. As easy diggings disappeared,...

SS Nenana’s $3 million restoration project starts this summer

This article is reprinted from the 1-14-2022 edition of the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. Photo and story by Amanda Bohman A 237-foot wooden steam-powered sternwheeler with five decks that was famous for plying Interior Alaska...

Phillips Field served Fairbanks aviation community’s needs for 40 years

Phillips Field served Fairbanks aviation community’s needs for 40 years

During Fairbanks’ post-World War II population boom, development pressure forced the relocation of the community’s airport, Weeks Field. The airport, less than a mile from downtown, moved eight miles farther away, to its present...

This Dunkel Street cabin is one of the oldest buildings in downtown Fairbanks

The small log cabin shown in the drawing is located at 105 Dunkel Street,  just to the west of the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center in downtown Fairbanks. It is a unique part...

Tall caches were once common in Alaska

Tall cache that used to stand at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks In modern Alaska, elevated storage caches (sometimes called fish or bear caches) typically consist of small rustic log cabins built atop four canted...

Fairbanks Aeromedical Lab was a Cold War program to study the Arctic

  The Arctic Aeromedical Lab building in Fairbanks, now the Fairbanks offices for the Army Corps of Engineers’ Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory.   Alaska has been a U.S. possession since 1867. However,...

Ester studio evokes memory of painter, Rusty Heurlin

Rusty Heurlin’s studio in Ester in the early winter of 2017 The cabin in the drawing was the studio for Alaska painter, Magnus Colcord “Rusty” Heurlin. Matthew Reckard, the artist’s neighbor, recently showed me...

College Station and the Toonerville Trolley

  College Station in the mid-1920s. The four miles between the University of Alaska and downtown Fairbanks offers little impediment to modern travelers. However, when the university’s predecessor, the Alaska College of Agriculture and...