Points of Pioneer Park

A Fair­banks fam­i­ly favorite, the play­ground is locat­ed at the cen­ter of the park and is designed for sev­er­al age groups with an ani­mal train and three climbers. (Stay tuned for the new cable climber and ADA acces­si­ble play equip­ment sched­uled for instal­la­tion in the fall of 2011!)

Look­ing for a relaxed din­ner after a busy day of adven­tures? Head to the Alas­ka Salmon Bake — the only one in Fair­banks — where you’ll enjoy all the food you like, sur­round­ed by a his­toric park filled with old build­ings and min­ing equip­ment. Take your pick of Fire Grilled Alaskan salmon, Beer Bat­tered Cod, or prime rib, cooked to perfection.

These night­ly music per­for­mances are spon­sored by the Fair­banks Arts Asso­ci­a­tion. They are held at the gaze­bo at 7 p.m. through­out the sum­mer. Bring a chair or blan­ket to sit on as bench seat­ing is lim­it­ed. Admis­sion: Free.

The Alas­ka Cen­ten­ni­al Cen­ter for the Arts was built in 1967 and designed to resem­ble a south­east Alas­ka trib­al hall. The masks on the out­side rep­re­sent ani­mal spir­its. Many peo­ple think the build­ing looks more like a birth­day cake, which is fit­ting since it was built for Alaska’s 100^th birth­day. Some Fair­banksans also refer to the cen­ter as the Pick­le Bar­rel. The Alas­ka Cen­ten­ni­al Cen­ter for the Arts is rumored to be haunt­ed. The Alaska…  ...more

On the north side of the park along the edge of the Chena Riv­er, sits Alas­ka Out­door Rentals & Guides pro­vid­ing one of Fair­banks’ few, out­door fam­i­ly adven­ture activ­i­ties. Alas­ka Out­doors rents kayaks, canoes, and bicy­cles for half-days, a day, or by the week. In addi­tion, they out­fits adven­tur­ers and hunters for wilder­ness, fly-in trips, they have a retail store for pad­dling gear, and they are the local deal­er for Thule cargo…  ...more

Pio­neer Park is home to an antique carousel that was built between 1915 and 1920, and brought to Fair­banks from Kirk­wood, Illi­nois. The ride is open from noon to 8pm every day through­out the summer.

Pio­neer Hall was designed to rep­re­sent a fine 1900’s era build­ing. It hous­es two his­tor­i­cal attrac­tions: The Pio­neer Muse­um which is filled with fas­ci­nat­ing arti­facts of ear­ly Fair­banks. The set­tlers of Fair­banks prob­a­bly would have been sur­prised if they had known their every­day uten­sils would one day be on dis­play in a muse­um. Few of the museum’s pieces are a hun­dred years old. Not very old by most muse­um stan­dards, but their val­ue is…  ...more

You can’t miss it — the muse­um looks like a round gold­en air­plane hangar with a mod­el air­craft from Air North mount­ed on beams out­side in a sim­u­lat­ed take-off. Inside, you’ll find a few of the ear­li­est air­craft in the state from the 1930s and 1940s used in mil­i­tary, com­mer­cial, and bush flights. All this is inter­pret­ed for vis­i­tors by local experts, who have lived and breathed the avi­a­tion indus­try for decades in Fair­banks, and shared it here  ...more

The River­boat Nenana is a stern­wheel­er, nick­named the ​“Queen of the Yukon.” She was com­mis­sioned by the Alas­ka Rail­road and built in 1933. Her parts were made in Seat­tle and then shipped to Nenana, Alas­ka where she was con­struct­ed. She plied the Tanana and Yukon Rivers from 1933 to 1954, and her pri­ma­ry run was between Nenana and Mar­shall — a dis­tance of about 858 miles. She also ran twice a month from May through Sep­tem­ber. The River­boat Nenana…  ...more

The gold rush that start­ed Fair­banks relied heav­i­ly on an ear­ly rail­road to quick­ly and effi­cient­ly move peo­ple and valu­able goods along a string of mines and sup­port­ing com­mu­ni­ties. The Tanana Val­ley Rail­road Muse­um illus­trates the role of this rail­road in Fair­banks’ first indus­try through his­tor­i­cal exhibits, inter­pre­tive train rides, and on-site restoration.