The city of Fairbanks started in 1901 as a trading post by Captin E.T. Barnette. A
year later, word started to spread that gold was found around Fairbanks and the gold
stampede to Fairbanks began. People started to pour into Fairbanks and the city began
to grow. In 1903, Fairbanks was an incorporated city and Barnette was its first mayor.
In 1915 Judge James Wickersham laid a cornerstone for the future site of the Alaska
Agricultural College and School of Mines, the first college in Alaska. There have
been numerous people that contributed to the growth of the University of Alaska Fairbanks
from the start and well into the present.
