Fairbanks

About Fairbanks

In winter the sky over Fairbanks often turns green. Sitting under the auroral oval in Alaska's interior, the city is one of the best places in the world to see the northern lights from late August to April, while in June the sun barely sets and baseball's Midnight Sun Game starts at 10:30 at night. Founded as a Chena River trading post in 1901, it boomed with the 1902 gold strike.

That gold-rush past lives on at Gold Dredge 8, where visitors pan for flakes, and at Pioneer Park, with its historic cabins and the sternwheeler Nenana. The Riverboat Discovery carries passengers down the Chena and Tanana rivers to a recreated Athabascan village and sled dog kennel. On campus, the Museum of the North tells the story of Alaska's land and peoples, and the Large Animal Research Station keeps musk oxen and reindeer.

The Trans-Alaska Pipeline runs just north of town, Creamer's Field fills with sandhill cranes in spring and summer, and Chena Hot Springs, an hour east, offers outdoor soaking beneath the aurora. The World Ice Art Championships bring giant ice sculptures every March.