110-year-old building returns home to Chena
Old Chena townsite building as it was being prepped for the return trip to Chena In early 1901, months before E.T. Barnette’s party landed on the bank of the Chena River, George Belt...
Category: Fairbanks
Old Caterpillar tractor from Manley still puttering along
In 1929, C.W. Cash, a sales representative for Northern Commercial Company, traveled through Interior Alaska visiting prospective customers. While at Manley Hot Springs, a small isolated community along the Tanana River, he met with...
The Northward Building still stands out in downtown Fairbanks
The Northward Building in 2014 In 1950 Fairbanks, Alaska was still a modest little town of small frame houses and log cabins. The city’s business district, fronting on the Chena River, pretty much fit...
Old Pan American hanger is a piece of Fairbanks’ hidden history
Pan American Airways hanger at Weeks field in the early 1940s The Pan American Airways hangar shown in the drawing is part of Fairbanks’ hidden history. It was once used by Pan Am at...
Old Independent Lumber warehouse representative of Interior Alaska’s lumbering history
Independent Lumber’s Fairbanks warehouse in 1990 As the town of Fairbanks grew between 1901 and the early 1920s it was not built with brick and stone. The city was far from Outside sources, and...
R. C. Wood, a neglected city father of Fairbanks
R. C. Wood’s house in the mid 1980s Richard Crowther “Dick” Wood, a pioneer Fairbanks banker and civic leader, was born in Winnemucca, Nevada in 1876. He spent much of his childhood in Tombstone,...
Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum’s Fordson snow tractor and the Detroit-Arctic Expedition
Fordson snow tractor outside the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum in Fairbanks The odd-looking contraption in the drawing is a Fordson “Snow Motor,” also called a snow tractor. It is basically a Fordson tractor (built...
Autumn hike to Colorado Creek Roadhouse – Chena River State Recreation Area
My grandson and I went looking for the old Colorado Creek Roadhouse this past weekend. It was one of three roadhouses built in the early 1900s along the old winter trail from Fairbanks to...
Immaculate Conception Church on a brilliantly sunny (but frigidly cold) February day
Today was a beautiful sunny day. Of course, the temperature when I woke up this morning was 30 degrees below zero–oh well. Here is a photo of Immaculate Conception Church from across the new...
Palace Hotel a rare remnant of Fairbanks early business district
Palace Hotel as it looked in November 2012 The old Palace Hotel, a two-story log structure now located at Pioneer Park, is a rare survivor of Fairbanks’ early business district. According to the City...
