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Fairbanks Essential Info

Overview

Fairbanks is a town in Interior Alaska, 1488 miles (2395 km) from the start of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek, BC. It is the second-largest city in Alaska and, being a junction of several major highways, will be a likely stop of most visitors to the state.

Fairbanks proper may be like a lot of towns in the lower 48. There's a Wal-Mart, a Home Depot and a McDonald's. Don't let this fool you, The greater Fairbanks area are true to their roots. There are plenty of Alaskan originals here.

Description is available from Wikitravel under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 license. A list of contributors is available at the original article.

Basics

Best Time To Go

Mar-Oct

Current Time

Current Weather

16 °F

Haze

Fun Facts

  1. Fairbanks was named by city founder E.T. Barnette in honor of Sen. Charles W. Fairbanks of Indiana, who would go on to serve at Theodore Roosevelt’s Vice President.
  2. On average, approximately 150 moose are killed on Fairbanks area roads each year. The dead moose are salvaged by local charities so the meat does not go to waste.
  3. Visitors to Fairbanks might notice residents driving around with water tanks in the beds of their pickups. It’s because much of the water supply around Fairbanks contains high levels of iron and arsenic, so residents often use holding tanks buried under their homes and haul their own water.
  4. Many parking lots offer electric outlets for plugging in engine block heaters so vehicles can start up.
  5. The coldest temperature ever recorded in Fairbanks was 66 degrees below zero on Jan. 14, 1934.

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