Fairbanks sprouted up as a gold mining town and as a trading post. The town started around E.T. Barnette's trading post. When Felix Pedro struck gold Barnette sent his helper Wada to get people to tell people about the gold. The town became prosperous, people came, businesses started, and gold was mined. Barnette became the first mayor as well as a banker of Fairbanks. Fairbanks grew to be the second biggest town in Alaska. Fairbanks is located about12 miles from the Chena Slough near where Pedro struck gold. Fairbanks has survived two consecutive food shortages in the winter. A flood occurred in Fairbanks' history, and a fire burned down nearly all of down town.

The World Wars were the next big thing for Alaska. The war brought many people to Fairbanks. The Alaska Highway was built to connect Alaska to the lower 48 states, bringing troups and supplies for radar defense and missle defense. After the war people were transferred to Alaska nearly doubling its population. Most of the buildings in Fairbanks have false fronts meaning that a new front was built over the old one. Fairbanks a.k.a Fairbanks North Star Borough had 18,000 people during the gold rush after the gold rush the population went back down to 1,100 and unemployment was a big problem. The town of Fairbanks was named after Charles Fairbanks, an Indianian Congress man.