Eventually we ventured away from downtown Fairbanks and started venturing towards the edges of town. Now, to be certain, Fairbanks isn’t a huge town so the “edges” were pretty close. However, I didn’t have enough room to cover everything in the last article so I had to draw a line somewhere. For this purpose I defined it as something I’d rather drive than walk.
University of Alaska Fairbanks
One such place was the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This is the flagship of the University of Alaska system and has about 6,500 students. The Anchorage campus has many more students but Fairbanks is the older, original location so it gets the honor.
Their team name is the Nanooks. In the Inuit language, Nanook means polar bear, and naturally the University’s logo features a stylized representation. Notably, a polar bear is more than just an animal to the Inuit. The creature takes on religious and spiritual connotations as well, a sign of respect for its size and power. The polar bear is truly the apex predator of the arctic and a fitting name for a sports team.
Historic Site
The campus also contains a bonafide historical site, its bookstore. Well, the bookstore itself isn’t historic, rather it’s the building where it resides. It’s called Constitution Hall (map) which gives a solid clue to its significance. Members of a Constitutional Convention met in the building in 1955 and drafted a document that became the Alaska constitution upon statehood in 1959.
Scenic Overlook
The western side of campus extends upward onto a hilltop, and of course elevation increases opportunities for scenic views. There’s a great one here too. The university actually created a designated pullout expressly for that purpose. On a good day, the Alaska Range appears in the distance, featuring the highest peak in North America: Denali / Mt. McKinley.
It was cloudy one day we drove through and partly sunny another day. We caught a glimpse the second time although I didn’t have my good camera with me. The photo doesn’t really do it justice. It’s much more impressive in real life. Those mountains are about a hundred miles away (160 km) which gives a good indication of scale.
Museum of the North
The campus also includes the Museum of the North which highlights Alaska culture, history, geology, and paleontology (map). There’s a lot to see here, with the most well know artifact probably the Blue Babe. This is an amazingly preserved body of a steppe bison that died about 36,000 years ago, likely killed by cave lions. The carcass froze quickly, silt encased it, and it remained there exceptionally preserved until discovered in remarkable condition in the 1970’s. The specimen on display is something of a taxidermy. Scientists removed the bones from the carcass, so what people see today is the preserved skin on a frame.
Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum
A fountainhead is a source or a headwaters so that’s a great name for a large display of the world’s earliest automobiles. But take note, it’s probably easier to visit the Fountainhead Antique Auto Museum in the summer rather than when we toured it in October (map). Off-season it’s open for something like four hours twice a week. So we had to schedule around these limited windows to make sure we got there at the right time and see everything without feeling rushed. It’s well worth it. The museum is huge and it pairs vintage automobiles with displays of appropriate period clothing. Really, it’s two museums in one, the vehicles and the matching outfits.
Large Animal Research Station
Fairbanks also has a Large Animal Research Station on the edge of town (map). The large animals being researched here include musk ox, reindeer, and bison, so it’s a lot of megafauna native to the arctic and sub-arctic. The animals live in large enclosures over rolling acres so they appear in the distance most of the time. It isn’t practical for visitors to walk up to the animals so you get what you get. We were lucky that a couple of musk oxen decided to hang out by the fence while we were there.
Wildfire Walk
Meanwhile a trailhead beckoned across the road. It was an easy lollipop path extending not much beyond a mile and it led through part of the site of the 2021 Yankovich Road Fire. It offered a nice opportunity to compare areas recovering from the fire to those that were spared. The photo shows one of the areas that did not burn.
Trans-Alaska pipeline
A few miles north of town, heading towards Fox on the Steese Highway, drivers pass a pullout that provides access to the Trans-Alaska pipeline (map). It’s a legit place — people are allowed to do this. The space includes markers that describe some of the superlatives regarding its construction and length, and then people can walk right up to the pipeline itself. There are signs telling people not to mess with the pipe or climb on it, but otherwise it’s fine to be there.
The whole pipeline extends 800 miles (1,287 km) from Alaska’s north slope on Prudhoe Bay all the way down to Valdez on Prince William Sound. So it crosses the entire state from north to south. Most of it runs above ground although not as much in the built-up areas of Fairbanks. This is a good place for the curious to see what it’s all about.
Later in the trip, we rode on the Dalton Highway and experienced hundreds of miles of pipeline. But we didn’t know that at the time we stopped here at the pullout. Even so, for those with limited time in Fairbanks, this is the easiest way to see the pipeline. We were on the way to somewhere else so it wasn’t out of the way at all.
Brewery Options
There are breweries on the outskirts of Fairbanks and of course we had to sample them. I’ll note the usual caveat and move on from there.
Brewery #3: Silver Gulch Brewery
So when we stopped at the pipeline, we were actually on the way to Silver Gulch Brewery in the town of Fox. Be still my geography-loving heart, it bills itself as “America’s most northern brewery.” Of course I fact-checked the claim. It appears true, and it will probably stay that way unless someone opens a brewery in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow). Actually it might be the most northern brewery in all of North America; I couldn’t find a Canadian brewery this far north.
Brewery #4: Black Spruce Brewing Co.
Black Spruce Brewing is named for the ubiquitous tree of the boreal forest. We enjoyed seeing the trees during our journey and likewise enjoyed sampling the beverages from Black Spruce Brewing. They also made various ciders in addition to beers.
Brewery #5: HooDoo Brewing Co.
I mentioned this one earlier in the context of the HooDoo Half Marathon. So this was an opportunity to combine two activities into a single effort. The race terminated at the brewery where we crossed the finish line and we hung around for awhile afterwards. This was also a packet pickup location a couple days before the race so we went here twice.
Articles in the Interior Alaska Series
- Golden Heart
- Downtown Fairbanks
- Greater Fairbanks
- Parks Highway
- Coldfoot
- Dalton Highway
- Richardson Highway & More
- Memorable Signs
See Also: The Complete Photo Album on Flickr.
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