Editing Fairbanks, Alaska (section)

=== 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>