Story Time with Aunt Phil: Founding Fairbanks

During the gold-rush heyday, communities like Girdwood, Hope and Circle City teemed with thousands of hopeful fortune seekers. But as stampeders’ desires for golden riches turned into the reality of lost dreams, most gold-rush boomtowns dwindled into little more than faded memories.
A discovery in July 1902 birthed a gold rush town that has stood the test of time, however. Fairbanks can trace its roots to one merchant, Elbridge Truman Barnette, a man who wanted to position himself as a sup