Fairbanks

The hardy Alaskans who refuse to leave during the cold and dark winters share a strong camaraderie. The fight to stave off cabin fever leads to creative festivals, from winter solstice celebrations to an outhouse and snowmachine tug-of-war during Chatanika Days in Chatanika, 28 mi north of town. The other bonus? Viewing the aurora, or northern lights, an average of 243 nights a year.

These magic lights were a common sight to the native Alaskans who lived and traveled through Interior Alaska for thousands of years. But it wasn't until the early 1900s that a permanent settlement took shape along the banks of the Chena River. In 1901 E.T. Barnette, a merchant traveling upstream, was forced to leave the boat with all of his trading goods at a wooded spot along the Chena River because the water was too shallow to pass. While waiting passage farther east for the next year, Barnette's luck improved when an Italian prospector discovered gold 12 mi north of Barnette's settlement the next summer. The resulting gold rush created customers for his stockpile of goods and led to the birth of the city, which for a brief time became the largest and wealthiest settlement in Alaska.

The city's nickname, the Golden Heart, reflects Fairbanks's gold-rush history and its location: it's the gateway to the Far North—the Arctic and the Bering Coast—and to Canada's Yukon Territory.

As you walk the streets of Fairbanks today, it takes a good imagination to envision the rough-and-tumble gold-mining camp that first took shape along the Chena River in the early 1900s. Although a few older neighborhoods have weathered log cabins, the rest is a Western hodgepodge that reflects the urge to build whatever one wants, wherever one wants—a trait that has long been a community standard.

There are efforts to preserve some of the gold-rush past, most notably in the 44-acre Pioneer Park, where dozens of cabins and many other relics were moved out of the path of progress. Downtown Fairbanks began to deteriorate in the 1970s, before and after the boom associated with the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. But the downward spiral ended and most of downtown has been rebuilt.

For details on all local attractions, historical and otherwise, stop by the downtown Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau in the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center. We highly recommend a trip to the campus of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where the University of Alaska Museum of the North got a makeover in 2006; the new building is full of soothing, swooping lines that evoke glaciers, mountains, and sea life.

Fairbanks Gold

The gold strike by Felix Pedro in 1902 is commemorated annually in late July with the celebration of Golden Days, marked by a parade and several days of gold rush-inspired activities.