Editing Fairbanks, Alaska (section)

==History==
{{Main|History of Fairbanks, Alaska}}
[[File:First camp at Fairbanks 1903.jpg|left|thumb|The fledgling settlement of Fairbanks as it appeared in 1903. The buildings shown are likely those of E. T. Barnette's trading post.]]
[[File:Downtown street in Fairbanks 1955 Meyer.jpg|thumb|left|Photo taken by [[Elisabeth Meyer (photographer)|Elisabeth Meyer]] in 1955, looking easterly from Second Avenue and Cushman Street. The now-abandoned [[Polaris Building]], the tallest building in Fairbanks since its completion in 1952, is in the background.]]
[[File:Golden Heart Plaza.jpg|right|thumb|First Family Statue near Visitor Center, Fairbanks, Alaska]]

=== Alaska Native presence ===

[[Alaskan Athabaskans|Athabascan peoples]] have lived on, traveled through, and stewarded the land of the Fairbanks area [[Prehistory of Alaska|for thousands of years]]. Fairbanks continues to benefit from the leadership and influence of people from Athabascan and other Alaska Native communities.  

An archaeological site excavated on the grounds of the [[University of Alaska Fairbanks]] uncovered a Native camp about 3,500 years old, with older remains found at deeper levels.<ref name="land bridge">Gibbon, Guy E. and Ames, Kenneth M. [https://books.google.com/books?id=_0u2y_SVnmoC ''Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia'']. Taylor & Francis, 1998. p. 116</ref> From evidence gathered at the site, archaeologists surmise that Native activities in the area included seasonal hunting and fishing.<ref name="Gold Rush Town, p. 65">''Gold Rush Town'', p. 65</ref> In addition, archaeological sites on the grounds of nearby [[Fort Wainwright]] date back well over 10,000 years.<ref>U.S. Army. [http://www.usarak.army.mil/conservation/CR_fwa.htm "Cultural resources at Fort Wainwright"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090115091033/http://www.usarak.army.mil/conservation/CR_fwa.htm |date=January 15, 2009 }}<span>,, [http://www.usarak.army.mil www.usarak.army.mil] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070105003944/http://www.usarak.army.mil/ |date=January 5, 2007 }}. March 18, 2009. Accessed August 5, 2009.</span></ref> 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 Bering Strait land bridge in deep antiquity.<ref name="land bridge"/>

=== European settlers ===
Captain [[E. T. Barnette]] founded Fairbanks in August 1901 while headed to [[Tanacross, Alaska|Tanacross]] (or Tanana Crossing, where the Valdez–Eagle trail crossed the [[Tanana River]]), where he intended to set up a trading post. The steamboat on which Barnette was a passenger, the ''Lavelle Young'', ran aground while attempting to negotiate shallow water. Barnette, along with his party and supplies, were deposited along the banks of the [[Chena River]] {{convert|7|mi}} upstream from its confluence with the Tanana River. The sight of smoke from the steamer's engines caught the attention of gold prospectors working in the hills to the north, most notably an Italian immigrant named Felice Pedroni (better known as [[Felix Pedro]]) and his partner Tom Gilmore. The two met Barnette where he disembarked and convinced him of the potential of the area. Barnette set up his trading post at the site, still intending to eventually make it to Tanacross.<ref>{{cite web|title=History of Fairbanks|url=http://fairbanks-alaska.com/fairbanks-history.htm|author=Aurora WebMasters|website=Fairbanks-alaska.com|url-status=dead|access-date=January 29, 2012|archive-date=January 28, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120128210647/http://fairbanks-alaska.com/fairbanks-history.htm}}</ref> Teams of gold prospectors soon congregated in and around the newly founded Fairbanks; they built drift mines, dredges, and lode mines in addition to panning and sluicing.<ref>{{cite web|title=Gold Rush History|url=http://explorefairbanks.com/go/explore/gold-rush-history/36|work=Explore Fairbanks|publisher=Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau|access-date=January 28, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130101012139/http://www.explorefairbanks.com/go/explore/gold-rush-history/36|archive-date=January 1, 2013}}</ref>

After some urging by [[James Wickersham]], who later moved the seat of the [[United States territorial court|Third Division court]] from [[Eagle, Alaska|Eagle]] to Fairbanks, the settlement was named after [[Charles W. Fairbanks]], a Republican senator from [[Indiana]] and later the twenty-sixth vice president of the United States, serving under [[Theodore Roosevelt]] during his second term.<ref>{{cite web|title=Vice Presidents of the United States: Charles W. Fairbanks|url=https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/charles_fairbanks.pdf|website=Senate.gov|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030310114839/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/charles_fairbanks.pdf|archive-date=March 10, 2003|access-date=October 24, 2012}}</ref>

In these early years of settlement, the [[Tanana Valley]] was an important agricultural center for Alaska until the establishment of the [[Matanuska Valley]] Colonization Project and the town of [[Palmer, Alaska|Palmer]] in 1935. Agricultural activity still occurs today in the [[Tanana Valley]], but mostly to the southeast of Fairbanks in the communities of [[Salcha]] and [[Delta Junction]]. During the early days of Fairbanks, its vicinity was a major producer of agricultural goods. What is now the northern reaches of South Fairbanks was originally the farm of Paul J. Rickert, who came from nearby [[Chena, Alaska|Chena]] in 1904 and operated a large farm until his death in 1938.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Atwood|first1=Evangeline|last2=DeArmond|first2=Robert N.|author-link2=R. N. DeArmond|title=Who's Who in Alaskan Politics|year=1977|publisher=[[Binford & Mort]] for the Alaska Historical Commission|location=[[Portland, Oregon|Portland]]|page=84}}</ref> Farmers Loop Road and Badger Road, loop roads north and east (respectively) of Fairbanks, were also home to major farming activity. Badger Road is named for Harry Markley Badger, an early resident of Fairbanks who later established a farm along the road and became known as "the [[Strawberry]] King".<ref>Atwood and DeArmoun, ''Who's Who in Alaskan Politics'', p. 4</ref> Ballaine and McGrath Roads, side roads of Farmers Loop Road, were also named for prominent local farmers, whose farms were in the immediate vicinity of their respective namesake roads. Despite early efforts by the [[Alaska Loyal League]], the Tanana Valley Agriculture Association and William Fentress Thompson, the editor-publisher of the ''[[Fairbanks Daily News-Miner]]'', to encourage food production, agriculture in the area was never able to fully support the population, although it came close in the 1920s.<ref>''Like a Tree to the Soil: A History of Farming in Alaska's Tanana Valley, 1903 to 1940'', by Josephine E. Papp and Josie A. Phillips</ref>

The construction of [[Ladd Army Airfield]] starting in 1939, part of a larger effort by the federal government during the [[New Deal]] and [[World War II]] to install major infrastructure in the territory for the first time, fostered an economic and population boom in Fairbanks which extended beyond the end of the war. In the 1940s the [[Canol pipeline]] extended north from Whitehorse for a few years. The [[Haines, Alaska|Haines]] - Fairbanks 626 mile long 8" petroleum products pipeline was constructed during the period 1953–55.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.arlis.org/docs/vol1/AlaskaGas/Report4/Report_CEMML_2003_HainesFairbanksPipeline.pdf |title=The Haines-Fairbanks Pipeline |date=April 2003 |website=Arlis.org |access-date=November 19, 2015}}</ref> The presence of the U.S. military has remained strong in Fairbanks. Ladd became [[Fort Wainwright]] in 1960; the post was annexed into Fairbanks city limits during the 1980s.

Fairbanks suffered from several floods in its first seven decades, whether from ice jams during spring breakup or heavy rainfall. The first bridge crossing the Chena River, a wooden structure built in 1904 to extend Turner Street northward to connect with the wagon roads leading to the gold mining camps, often washed out before a permanent bridge was constructed at Cushman Street in 1917 by the [[Alaska Road Commission]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Matheson|first1=Janet|last2=Haldeman|first2=F. Bruce|title=Historic Resources in the Fairbanks North Star Borough|year=1981|publisher=[[Fairbanks North Star Borough]] Planning Department|location=Fairbanks|chapter=Gilmore Trail|page=19}}</ref> On August 14, 1967, after record rainfall upstream, the Chena began to surge over its banks, flooding almost the entire town of Fairbanks overnight. This disaster led to the creation of the Chena River Lakes Flood Control Project, which built and operates the {{convert|50|ft|m|adj=mid|-high}} Moose Creek Dam in the Chena River and accompanying {{convert|8|mi|km|adj=mid|-long}} spillway. The project was designed to prevent a repetition of the 1967 flood by being able to divert water in the Chena upstream from Fairbanks into the Tanana River, thus bypassing the city.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF16/1663.html |title=Fixing the Fatal Flaw of Fairbanks, Alaska Science Forum |website=Gi.alaska.edu |date=September 11, 2003 |access-date=January 29, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100615044224/http://www.gi.alaska.edu/ScienceForum/ASF16/1663.html |archive-date=June 15, 2010 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

===Railroad history===
{{multiple image
| footer            = The Alaska Railroad provides regular freight and passenger service between Fairbanks and [[Southcentral Alaska]] towns. Shown on the left is the railroad's Fairbanks depot, off the [[Johansen Expressway]] on the northern edge of the railroad yards. It opened in 2005, replacing the depot in downtown Fairbanks (right) which opened in 1960.
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| image1            = Fairbanks AK train station.jpg
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| image2            = Old Alaska Railroad Depot Fairbanks Alaska.jpg
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[[File:Alaska_Railroad_train_arrives_at_Fairbanks_station.jpg|thumb|An Alaska Railroad train arrives at Fairbanks station.]]
After large-scale gold mining began north of Fairbanks, miners wanted to build a railroad from the steamboat docks on the Chena River to the mine sites in the hills north of the city. The result was the Tanana Mines Railroad, which started operations in September 1905, using what had been the first steam locomotive in the Yukon Territory.<ref name="TVRRhistory">{{cite web |url=http://www.fairnet.org/agencies/tvrr/history.html |title=History of the Tanana Valley Railroad |website=Fairnet.org |date=May 15, 1907 |access-date=November 19, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160117131848/http://www.fairnet.org/agencies/tvrr/history.html |archive-date=January 17, 2016 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1907, the railroad was reorganized and named the [[Tanana Valley Railroad]]. The railroad continued expanding until 1910, when the first gold boom began to falter and the introduction of automobiles into Fairbanks took business away from the railroad.<ref name="TVRRhistory" /> Despite these problems, railroad backers envisioned a rail line extending from Fairbanks to [[Seward, Alaska|Seward]] on the Gulf of Alaska, home to the [[Alaska Railroad|Alaska Central Railway]].<ref>Clifford, Howard. ''Rails North: The railroads of Alaska and the Yukon''. Superior Publishing Co., 1981. P. 76.</ref>

In 1914, the U.S. Congress appropriated $35&nbsp;million for construction of the Alaska Railroad system, but work was delayed by the outbreak of World War I.<ref name="RRhistory">{{cite web|title=The Alaska Railroad – History |url=http://www.akrr.com/ARRC119.html |website=Akrr.com |access-date=August 9, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070105190545/http://www.akrr.com/arrc119.html |archive-date=January 5, 2007  }}</ref> Three years later, the Alaska Railroad purchased the Tanana Valley Railroad, which had suffered from the wartime economic problems.<ref name="RRhistory"/> Rail workers built a line extending northwest from Fairbanks, then south to [[Nenana, Alaska|Nenana]], where President [[Warren G. Harding]] hammered in the ceremonial final spike in 1923.<ref name="RRhistory"/> 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.<ref name="RRhistory"/>

From 1923 to 2004, the Alaska Railroad's Fairbanks terminal was in downtown Fairbanks, just north of the Chena River. In May 2005, the Alaska Railroad opened a new terminal northwest of downtown, and that terminal is in operation today.<ref>{{cite web|title=Railroad facilities|url=http://www.akrr.com/arrc281.html|website=akrr|publisher=The Alaska Railroad|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120731133403/http://www.akrr.com/arrc281.html|archive-date=July 31, 2012|access-date=October 7, 2009}}</ref> In summer, the railroad operates tourist trains to and from Fairbanks, and it operates occasional passenger trains throughout the year. The majority of its business through Fairbanks is freight.<ref>{{cite web|title=Report to the state of Alaska|url=http://www.akrr.com/pdf/PR_2335%20January%202009%20Report%20to%20State.pdf|date=January 2009|website=akrr|publisher=he Alaska Railroad|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110707103659/http://www.akrr.com/pdf/PR_2335%20January%202009%20Report%20to%20State.pdf|archive-date=July 7, 2011|access-date=October 7, 2009}}</ref> The railroad is planning an expansion of the rail line from Fairbanks to connect the city via rail with [[Delta Junction, Alaska|Delta Junction]], about {{convert|100|mi|km}} southeast.<ref>{{cite web|title=Northern rail extension project|url=http://www.northernrailextension.com/|website=northernrailextension|publisher=The Alaska Railroad|url-status=usurped|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061118072950/http://www.northernrailextension.com/|archive-date=November 18, 2006|access-date=October 7, 2009}}</ref>

===Road history===
{{multiple image
| footer            = Airport Way, eastbound (left) and westbound (right), is the main east–west thoroughfare in Fairbanks. Constructed in the early and mid-1970s, it links the main gate of [[Fort Wainwright]] with the main terminal of [[Fairbanks International Airport]].
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| image1            = Airport Way Fairbanks Alaska Eastbound.jpg
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[[File:Veteran's Memorial Bridge.jpg|thumb|The newest bridge across the Chena River in Fairbanks, Alaska, is the Veteran's Memorial Bridge, which opened in November 2012.]]

As the transportation hub for Interior Alaska, Fairbanks features extensive road, rail, and air connections to the rest of Alaska and outside of Alaska. At Fairbanks' founding, the only way to reach the new city was via steamboat on the Chena River.<ref>Hendrick, pp. 14–15</ref> In 1904, money intended to improve the [[Valdez-Eagle Trail]] was diverted to build a branch trail, giving Fairbanks its first overland connection to the outside world.<ref>Hendrick, p. 21</ref> The resulting [[Richardson Highway]] was created in 1910 after Gen. [[Wilds P. Richardson]] upgraded it to a wagon road. In the 1920s, it was improved further and made navigable by automobiles, but it was not paved until 1957.<ref>Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities. [http://www.dot.state.ak.us/stwdplng/scenic/byways-richardsonnorth.shtml "Richardson Highway north segment"], dot.state.ak.us. Accessed October 7, 2009.</ref>

Fairbanks' road connections were improved in 1927, when the {{convert|161|mi|km|adj=on}} [[Steese Highway]] connected the city to the Yukon River at the gold-mining community of [[Circle, Alaska|Circle]].<ref>''The Milepost''. [http://milepost.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=351&Itemid=411 "Steese Highway"], Morris Magazine Network. Accessed October 7, 2009.</ref> In 1942, the [[Alaska Highway]] connected the Richardson Highway to the Canadian road system, allowing road travel from the rest of the United States to Fairbanks, which is considered the unofficial end of the highway. Because of World War II, civilian traffic was not permitted on the highway until 1948.<ref>''The Milepost''. [https://web.archive.org/web/20070929182939/http://www.milepost.com/faq/hwy_drivingfacts.shtml "FAQ: Alaska Highway facts"], The Internet Archive. September 29, 2007. Accessed October 7, 2009.</ref>

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a series of roads were built to connect Fairbanks to the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay. The [[Elliott Highway]] was built in 1957 to connect Fairbanks to [[Livengood, Alaska|Livengood]], southern terminus of the [[Dalton Highway]],<ref name="ElliottHwy">''The Milepost''. [http://milepost.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=311&Itemid=371 "Elliott Highway"], Morris Magazine Network. Accessed October 7, 2009.</ref> which ends in [[Deadhorse, Alaska|Deadhorse]] on the North Slope.<ref>''The Milepost''. [http://milepost.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=281&Itemid=341 "Dalton Highway"], Morris Magazine Network. Accessed October 7, 2009.</ref> West of the Dalton intersection, the Elliott Highway extends to [[Manley Hot Springs]] on the Tanana River.<ref name="ElliottHwy"/> To improve logistics in Fairbanks during construction of the [[Trans-Alaska Pipeline]], the [[George Parks Highway]] was built between Fairbanks and Palmer in 1971.<ref>''The Milepost''. [http://milepost.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=331&Itemid=391 "Parks Highway"], Morris Magazine Network. Accessed October 7, 2009.</ref>

Until 1940, none of Fairbanks' surface streets were paved.<ref>''Gold Rush Town'', p. 114</ref> The outbreak of World War II interrupted plans to pave most of the city's roads, and a movement toward large-scale paving did not begin until 1953, when the city paved 30 blocks of streets.<ref>''Gold Rush Town'', p. 165</ref> During the late 1950s and the 1960s, the remainder of the city's streets were converted from gravel roads to asphalt surfaces.<ref>''Gold Rush Town'', p. 178</ref> Few have been repaved since that time; a 2008 survey of city streets indicated the average age of a street in Fairbanks was 31&nbsp;years.{{Update after|2012|11|3|reason=Repaving of city streets began in earnest in 2004 under Mayor Thompson, and has continued to the present, mostly since the cited news story was published.}}<ref>{{cite news|author=Eshleman, Christopher |url=http://www.newsminer.com/news/2009/oct/02/fairbanks-sales-tax-proposal-differs-previous-atte/ |title=Fairbanks sales tax proposal differs from previous attempts |newspaper=Fairbanks Daily News-Miner |date=October 2, 2009 |access-date=October 7, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091004012918/http://newsminer.com/news/2009/oct/02/fairbanks-sales-tax-proposal-differs-previous-atte/ |archive-date=October 4, 2009 }}</ref>