FAIRBANKS

=FAIRBANKS=



 358 miles north of Anchorage (by way of the Parks Highway), likes to think that it (instead of Delta) is the end of the Alaska Highway. Its central location makes it the focal point for the tiny villages scattered throughout the surrounding wilderness, and Fairbanks is a staging point for North Slope villages such as Barrow and the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay. Yet, unlike Anchorage, it still retains its down home "frontier" feel. It is contained within the North Star Borough, similar to a county, but which is roughly the size of New Jersey!
 * Fairbanks** is a Home Rule City in and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States.Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska, and second largest in the state behind Anchorage. It is the principal city of the Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area which encompasses all of the Fairbanks North Star Borough and is the northernmost Metropolitan Statistical Area in the United States.According to 2008 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 35,132, and the Fairbanks metropolitan area's population was 97,970. Fairbanks is home to the University of Alaska Fairbanks, the oldest college in Alaska.

More than one hundred years later, our small boomtown has a diversified economy, with oil, gas, gold and coal mining, military, tourism and the University of Alaska as key components. Fairbanks continues in its role as the services hub and gateway to Alaska's Interior and Arctic. With a population of close to 31,000, Fairbanks' citizenry swells to almost 97,000 when including the surrounding Fairbanks North Star Borough.