About Fairbanks

Before Fairbanks was founded, Koyukon Athabaskans lived, fished, and hunted along the shores of the Tanana River for thousands of years. The Tanana and other rivers also served as trade routes with other Athabaskans and Inuit. In the early 1900s, prospectors from the Klondike spread out into various parts of Alaska in search of gold. In August, 1901 a trader named E. T. Barnette chartered the riverboat Lavelle Young to transport a large load of merchandise to the gold fields near Tanacross. He was forced to disembark near the present site of First Avenue and Cushman Street on the Chena River because the Chena was too shallow to follow further upstream and the Tanana River was impassable. There Barnette established the trading post "Barnette's Cache." Two prospectors looking for gold in the hills north of Barnette's trading post saw the smoke from the steamboat and came down to investigate. They were out of supplies and thought they could get some from the steamboat. These prospectors were Felix Pedro (alias Felice Pedroni) an Italian immigrant, and Tom Gilmore. Less than a year later, in July, 1902, Felix Pedro discovered gold 16 miles (25 km) north of the post. This started a gold rush as outfitters and other merchants, in turn, sought to make money selling supplies to the many prospectors coming into the area. The town grew as prospectors made their way to the gold fields via the Chena steamboat landing. Barnette, initially unhappy to find himself far from the proven gold fields, nonetheless stayed put when Pedro and other prospectors came to camp to trade. Within a few years, Fairbanks became the largest city in Alaska (Anchorage is much larger now).