Touring Alaska: Third Stop-Fairbanks

Welcome back to our Touring Alaska blog series. Our third stop takes us to the city of Fairbanks, Alaska.

THIRD STOP: FAIRBANKS

Fairbanks is known as Alaska’s HUB city because it is the largest city located in Alaska’s interior. It sits at the center of several key state highways, Richardson Highway, George Parks Highway, Steese Highway and Elliot Highway and is served by Fairbanks International Airport that offers several domestic and foreign flights each day.

In addition to its key geographical location within the state, Fairbanks is home to both an Army and an Air Force base, the University of Alaska Fairbanks as well as a number of other educational institutions.

HISTORY OF FAIRBANKS

Fairbanks was founded in 1901 by a Yukon Riverboat Captain named ET Barnette. Following this, Fairbanks experienced several "booms" as people came in search of gold. Throughout the remainder of the early 20th century, the population of Fairbanks continued to ebb and flow until the oil boom of 1968. The oil boom lasted until the late 70s and the city has experienced a fairly normal cycle of “booms and busts” since that time.

THINGS TO DO IN FAIRBANKS

Visitors who come to Fairbanks will find there is plenty to do all year-round. During the summer, Fairbanks benefits from the long summer days, experiencing a full 22 hours of daylight. This allows ample time to view the northern lights, golfing, fishing, rafting and taking in all that the city has to offer such as shopping, restaurants and museums.

In addition to these great activities, Fairbanks offers access, via small plane, to great places within Alaska’s Interior, such as The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Chena River State Recreation Area is another great tourist destination near Fairbanks, offering plenty of wildlife viewing as well as kayaking.

A great resource for planning your excursion to Fairbanks can be found at Explore Fairbanks. You’ll find so much to do, you’ll likely need to plan a second trip to cover it all.

WHAT AAF LOVES ABOUT FAIRBANKS

Here at Alaska Air Forwarding, we love this HUB city because it allows us to reach the interior of the state, which is so critical to our business as well as everyone else’s. There are places within the interior that can be difficult to reach, but thanks to the key location of Fairbanks, we know we can always land there if needed and make any necessary transfers in order to get our shipments to their destination.
If you plan to visit Alaska anytime in the near future, be sure and include Fairbanks on your itinerary; we promise you’ll love it!