|
The history of Fairbanks, the second-largest city in Alaska, can be traced to the founding of a trading post by E.T. Barnette on the south bank of the Chena River on August 26, 1901. The area had seen human occupation since at least the last ice age, but a permanent settlement was not established at the site of Fairbanks until the 20th century. The discovery of gold near Barnette's trading post caused him to turn what had been a temporary stop into a permanent one. The gold caused a stampede of miners to the area, and buildings sprang up around Barnette's trading post. In November 1903, the area's residents voted to incorporate the city of Fairbanks. Barnette became the city's first mayor, and the city flourished as thousands of people came in search of gold during the Fairbanks Gold Rush. By the time of World War I, the easy-to-reach gold was exhausted and Fairbanks' population plunged as miners moved to promising finds at Ruby and Iditarod. Construction of the Alaska Railroad caused a surge of economic activity and allowed heavy equipment to be brought in for further exploitation of Fairbanks' gold deposits. Enormous gold dredges were built north of Fairbanks, and the city grew throughout the 1930s as the price of gold rose during the Great Depression. A further boom came during the 1940s and 1950s as the city became a staging area for construction of military depots during World War II and the first decade of the Cold War. In 1968, the vast Prudhoe Bay Oil Field was discovered in Alaska's North Slope. Fairbanks became a supply point for exploitation of the oil field and for construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, which caused a boom unseen since the first years of Fairbanks' founding and helped the town recover from the devastating 1967 Fairbanks Flood. Fairbanks became a government center in the late 1960s with the establishment of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which took Fairbanks as its borough seat. A drop in oil prices during the 1980s caused a recession in the Fairbanks area, but the city gradually recovered as oil prices climbed during the 1990s. Tourism also became an important factor in Fairbanks' economy, and the growth of the tourism industry and the city continues even as oil production declines. ==Before Fairbanks== Though there was never a permanent Alaska Native settlement at the site of Fairbanks, Athabascan Indians have used the area for thousands of years. An archaeological site excavated on the grounds of the University of Alaska Fairbanks uncovered a Native camp about 3,500 years old.〔Gibbon, Guy E. and Ames, Kenneth M. (''Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia'' ). Taylor & Francis, 1998. p. 116〕 From evidence gathered at the site, archaeologists surmise that Native activities in the area were limited to seasonal hunting and fishing.〔''Gold Rush Town'', p. 65〕 In addition, archeological sites on the grounds of nearby Fort Wainwright date back 10,000 years.〔U.S. Army. ("Cultural resources at Fort Wainwright" ), www.usarak.army.mil. March 18, 2009. Accessed August 5, 2009.〕 Sites within Alaska but away from Fairbanks date to the time of the Bering Land Bridge more than 13,000 years ago.〔Rinella, Steven. ("Meet the Flintstones" ), ''Outside Magazine''. August 2007. Accessed August 5, 2009.〕 Arrowheads excavated from the University of Alaska Fairbanks site matched similar items found in Asia, providing some of the first evidence that humans arrived in North America via the land bridge.〔 The first recorded exploration of the Tanana Valley and the Tanana River did not take place until 1885, but historians believe Russian traders from Nulato and Hudson's Bay Company traders ventured into the lower reaches of the Tanana and possibly the Chena River in the middle of the 19th century.〔McKennan, Robert A. "Athapaskan groups of central Alaska at the time of white contact", ''Ethnohistory Quarterly''. Vol. 16, No. 4 (Fall 1969). p. 335〕 In 1885, Henry Tureman Allen of the U.S. Army led the first recorded expedition down the length of the Tanana River, charting the Chena River's mouth along the way.〔''Crooked Past'', p. vii〕 In July 1897, the first news of the Klondike gold strike reached Seattle, Washington, triggering the Klondike Gold Rush.〔''Crooked Past'', p. 1〕 Thousands of people boarded steamships heading north to the gold fields. Some of these travelers sailed around the western tip of Alaska and up the Yukon River to Dawson City (site of the gold fields) rather than take an arduous overland trip across the Boundary Ranges.〔''Crooked Past'', p. 5〕 One of these adventurers was E.T. Barnette, who intended to establish a trading post at Tanacross, Alaska, where the Valdez-Eagle Trail crossed the Tanana River.〔''Crooked Past'', pp. 18–19〕 He hired the steamer ''Lavelle Young'' to transport him and his supplies, and they began their trip upriver in August 1901.〔''Crooked Past'', p. 21〕 After turning into the Tanana from the Yukon, the steamboat ran into low water. After venturing upstream several miles, the boat reached an impassable point. Barnette suggested the Chena River (then called the Rock River) might be a slough of the Tanana and a way around the low water.〔''Crooked Past'', pp. 22–23〕 About from the mouth of the Chena, the ''Lavelle Young'' again ran into an impassable stretch of river. The captain of the Young did not want to travel downstream with a heavy load because of the danger posed by the extra mass. He therefore unloaded Barnette's cargo on August 26, 1901, with an irate Barnette assisting.〔''Crooked Past'', p. 24〕 Barnette began building a cabin at a site he named "Chenoa City", and he sold supplies to two prospectors, Felix Pedro and Tom Gilmore, who were in the area.〔''Crooked Past'', p. 25〕 Barnette traded for furs, then traveled to Valdez via dog team with his wife and three other men. The mountain pass they traveled through was later named Isabel Pass in honor of Barnette's wife.〔 From Valdez, he returned to St. Michael, where he built a steamboat, the ''Isabelle'', and began sailing up the Yukon in August 1902.〔''Crooked Past'', p. 34〕 He intended to move his supplies to Tanacross, but when he arrived at his trading post on the Chena River, he changed his mind. Felix Pedro had discovered gold.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Fairbanks, Alaska」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|