Fairbanks (pop. 32,515; met. area pop. 95,655) is the second largest city in Alaska. Only Anchorage has more people. Fairbanks lies in east-central Alaska, about 115 miles (185 kilometers) south of the Arctic Circle. It is a transportation and supply center for central and northern Alaska and is the northernmost city on the state’s system of paved roads.
Fairbanks lies on the Chena River, near to where the Chena joins the Tanana River. The city is midway along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which transports oil 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s north coast to Valdez on the south coast. The main employers are state, local, and federal government agencies; military bases; and the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Mining, agriculture, forestry, and tourism also provide some jobs. The architecture of Fairbanks ranges from modern office buildings to log cabins and plywood shacks.
Temperatures in the city reach as high as 95 °F (35 °C) in summer and as low as –60 °F (–51 °C) in winter. Winters last from mid-October to mid-April. Fairbanks receives an average of about 65 inches (165 centimeters) of snow yearly. It has about 22 hours of daylight on the longest day of the year, on or near June 21, and less than 4 hours on the shortest day, on or near December 21.
Fairbanks was founded in 1901 by E. T. Barnette, a trader whose steamboat ran aground on its way up the Tanana River. Felix Pedro, an Italian immigrant, found gold near Fairbanks in 1902, and Barnette’s trading post became a supply center for miners in the area. The city was named after Charles W. Fairbanks, a United States senator from Indiana who became vice president of the United States in 1905. The discovery of oil at Prudhoe Bay in 1968 and the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline between 1974 and 1977 led to the growth of jobs and population in the area.
