Letter to the Editor
History destroyed
Published Thursday, October 22, 2009
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To the editor:
The powers that be decided to destroy one of the last remaining historical buildings in downtown Fairbanks. What are we doing? We have allowed outsiders, who cared nothing about our heritage, to sell us out in the name of tourism.
Who benefits from this destruction besides the greedy politicians and businessmen? Without our history, we are nothing but Seattle. To see Fairbanks, you have to go to “Alaskaland” or locate some old pictures. Is it already too late?
Community Discussion
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Ken your right, and I have been saying that to to people I have talked with for years. But it seems like no one cares.
I have a great idea!!!! I'm surprised someone hasn't thought of this before. Tare down the Polairs Building and put in a PARKING LOT!!!!!
Can't be any worse than changing the name of Alaskaland to Pioneer Park. After Fairbanks got the Alaska Native community to endorse Alaskaland when it was built. And then renamed it Pioneer Park after that to reclaim the history of Fairbanks Colonialism policies. History destroyed indeed. See if the history of your governments sanctions and participation of the policies of Colonialism brought on the murder of 3,000 Americans on 9/11. And what can be done so Americans don't have to cower like cowards and bleat like sheep whenever the neo cons utter Bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Like... Quit stealing their natural resources.. And killing them in the process. Theft and Murder ring a bell?
Pioneer Park. Might as well name it Thieves and Murderers Park.
History destroyed. Next thing you know the immigrants will start wanting the Natives to start celebrating Columbus Day for a rapist and a murderer who died of Syphillis. And the pilgrims who murdered the same Natives who saved their butts from starvation three years after they celebrated thanksgiving day.
History destroyed. Should be history revised.
What say the immigrants?
tear down walmart and put in a field! just kidding. its a shame about the history of this town. No one seems to care?
Curtj
It would not hurt you to seek some sort of help.
the funny thing is now the economy has gone kaput and the tourists have stop coming anyway.
What's wrong with Seattle? They've preserved a great measure of the history of Pacific Northwest. Great place! Check out Pioneer Square and Pike Place Market. If you look back far enough, you'll find that Seattle is part of Alaskan heritage.
The only true history of this town is mining and the 'mom and pops' have been driven out thanks to the environmentalists. The down town area was built to service the mining industry, so it is only fitting that liberals want to do away with anything that is real and rewrite history.
City Planners have already ruined our local history & put in it's place a "dirty little river town" era 1960's. Nothing can be done at this late date, there is no historic value left to protect. Fairbank's best hope was to develop a "historic downtown" for tourism,[I don't mean Alaska Land] but it's too late. No re-building is possible, the opportunity has been lost! Might as well tear down what's left of downtown "and put up a parking lot".
Pretty soon, there will be a movement to "Save the Historic Dredge Tailings".
The only real historical building I can recall downtown was the Nordale hotel and that took itself down. The buildings where the parking garage is with the possible exeption of the old Leprichon Room were 50's era cinder block. The block where the Marriot is had some old buildings on the first avenue side and I miss the pancake house and pastime cafe where you could get a good burger 24 kours a day but none of these were really gold rush era buildings. The "historic" downtown burned down and was rebuild along time before any tourists were around. As for "mom and pop" miners there were at least 4 opperations on Fox creek, 1 on Pedro, 2 on Cleary, 2 on Eagle, 2 on Dome and 1 on Treasure and most likely a lot more. If you can get the ground you can mine it. I did.
Fairbanks is nothing but then an average American city anymore. We have the looks, the crime, the stupid politicians. If you flew someone in blindfolded and dropped them off on Airport way, covering any sign that included the name Alaska, most of them couldn't tell you what state they were in. And you wonder why the tourists trade in the city is slowly diminishing....
trapshoot,
Might also be beneficial if he'd just "stay on his meds" too...
Things change, deal with it.
roadtrip,
I'm thinking that a "change" in CurtJ would only be an improvement; could be wrong but...
Doug -- speaking of deranged individuals, we haven't heard from Carmacks in a while... or did I miss his latest screed?
Prospector,
You could be right; last time I paid attention to the date of one of his letters it was shortly after the first of the month (and I don't remember seeing one for October)...
Thanks roadtrip, my feelings exactly. For the handful of Hillbillies that can't take it anymore, buy a little chunk of land out in the Brooks Range and start over. No Walmart, no traffic, no roundabouts, no borough, no nothing. It should suit you just fine.
Fairbanks cannot be compared to Seattle or San Francisco, as both of them have underground cities which means they were rebuilt on top of the old city.
Actually to me, Downtown Fairbanks before the Marriott existed looked pretty similar to Mexicali BC (Mexico).
CurtJ: Thanks for reminding me. I'd nearly forgotten that Alaskaland was a neocon plot.
RIGHT WHERE"S THE BEACH
And what did you complainers do to preserve the history of Fairbanks? We are gradually making this city into a modern little town in the midst of the interior. The sad thing is that we rely on the tourist trade and yet we work so hard to make Fairbanks a replica of "any town USA". Soon the tourists will have no reason to come to the interior because they can save money by staying home knowing that they can look around their own towns and visualize Fairbanks, Alaska. We are destroying the very thing that vacationers can get excited about.
"The only true history of this town is mining and the 'mom and pops' have been driven out thanks to the environmentalists. The down town area was built to service the mining industry, so it is only fitting that liberals want to do away with anything that is real and rewrite history."
That's right Tugboat, blame everything on the liberals and the environmentalists. The problem couldn't be the large number of box stores with lower prices, a larger selection, and free parking about a mile away, could it? It must have been the liberals and environmentalists who pushed for all of that development just to undermine downtown Fairbanks. Damn liberals.....
Fairbanks, as a vacation destination, is really for the hardy and wealthy. Do you realize what people pay to visit Fairbanks? I, too, wanted to see the Samson's block restored. After witnessing the remains of what was, I can agree with the demolition. The original "historic" Samson's Hardware was actually in the parking lot that serviced the now demolished building.
There is enough history left in Fairbanks, and it's too late to undo what politicians ignored about the character that was Fairbanks.
Times change, and new replaces the old. Fairbanks cannot depend on just Toursim to survive or prosper.
The oldest landmarks in Fairbanks are it's bars, the Mecca has been around since 1946, I'm not sure how old the Comet Club is although I know it has a fridge from before the flood, The Big I reopened an older bar that was closed in 67'. Fairbanks was originally made up of homesteaders who seldom got to come "to town" and when they did make the trip they intended on "having a good time" and miniture golf hadn't been invented so they drank. Liberals who want a "rich" history would rather not remember what Fairbanks was, a boom town. We never had a opera house or museum that people talked about elsewhere in the world, and if we want one we're going to have to build one new.
You guys are all for saving history, but are you willing to pay for it? History is only worth saving if it is preserved... letting old building rot into ruin does nothing except add to blight.
BTW... Samson's may have been an old business that was located in its original location, but the building was no longer of historic value. It had been heavily renovated after the flood and most of the original building was replaced. Sort of like having the axe George Washington used to cut down the cherry tree... but with the head replaced once and the handle twice.
Alaskaland wasn't a neo con plot. Just some old fashioned Colonialism at the hands of some immigrants who think their s--t don't stink, and probably didn't think any Alaska Natives would notice. Why do you all celebrate columbus day when he was nothing more than a rapist and a murderer who got lost, and ended up dying of Syphillis? Why do you revere someone who died of Syphillis??
Samm, while you're listing historic locations being worthless because they've been replaced one part at a time why don't you go tell the Chinese that the Forbidden City has no value, most of it has been replaced since the Ming Dynasty.
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I love all this nostalgic historical recollection of a Fairbanks that never was. The old town was a commercial and residential hub. The city was almost immediately gentrified with courts, stores, and other commercial enterprises. The golden days nonsense about this being a frontier town with shootouts and saloon girls and whatnot is apocrypha. Samsons was a neat store but there wasn't anything historical about it except the name.
Anyone else tired of hearing about an old building being torn down? There's not a building in Alaska that couldn't be torn down and would bother me. Move on.
Doug, that was completely unnecessary. Both, of your comments.
tok242,
Yes, you're right (but then, so are almost all of Curt's comments)...
I thought Columbus sailed off the end of the earth.I like him better now.
gbob... The forbidden city was not rebuilt, it was restored. There are temples and shrines in Japan that have been virtually replicated every 100 years or so, stick by stick, for hundreds of years. I don't think that the concrete block reconstruction of Samson's 40 years ago is in the same category.
There are lots of known or strongly suspected famous syphilitics including Martin Luther, J.S. Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Voltaire, Thomas Aquinas, John Alden, Diogenes, King Charles VII of France, Henry VII and five of his wives, Ivan the Terrible, Abraham Lincoln, Darwin, Edgar Allen Poe, Van Gogh, Oscar Wilde, Nietzsche, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire, Guy de Maupassant, Eduoard Manet, Henri de Toulouse Lautrec, and Paul Gaugin and Pocahontas.
"Without our history, we are nothing but Seattle."
This should read, "Without our history, we are nothing but Tukwila."
I too,find it hard to fall in love with brick & mortar.Go to the Pioneers Home and say "hey" to someone whom is history.(or an Elder).
Like the time I caught the ferry to Shelbyville. I needed a new heel for m'shoe. So I decided to go to Morganville, which is what they called Shelbyville in those days. So I tied an onion to my belt. Which was the style at the time. Now, to take the ferry cost a nickel, and in those days, nickels had pictures of bumblebees on 'em. Gimme five bees for a quarter, you'd say. Now where was I... oh yeah. The important thing was that I had an onion tied to my belt, which was the style at the time. You couldn't get white onions, because of the war. The only thing you could get was those big yellow ones...
I believe that Fairbanks today is pretty much the same as it was back "in the day". An industrial commercial town with little that was particularly unique. That which was unique was the lives and lifestyles of those who founded and lived her. Most of those folks were as transient as Tanana River sandbars. Here for a year or two, maybe even longer, and then gone as the river shifted course.
Fairbanks has generally existed in order to separate those engaged in the many and various enterprises of the region from their hard earned money. The only difference today is that it is Walmart, Fred Meier and Seekins Ford doing the separating.
Please don't get me wrong. I appreciate Fairbanks for what it is. I'm one of those who chooses to live outside of Fairbanks, take advantages of the commercial enterprises that make it easier for me to live here, and then return to my little house well outside of town.
Who knows, maybe someday historians will be interested in the generic American city, at which time Walmart, Freddies and Ralph's place may be all worthy of preservation.
Let's restore Ruthy's on 22nd then. Bring it back to its original glory and celebrate the miners and roughnecks that made it what it was.
Kathleen I'm shocked! A proper lady doesn't mention such. What was the name of the officer that brought her and the police chief down? Had a different name, he didn't last long. Remember Sweets? Always cool, only open late.
Ken...when was the last time you visited that historic building?
They should have left the Samson/Hot Tamale corridor intact, and demoed the new courthouse instead...
Talk about an eyesore like the Polaris while that new courthouse is as useless as a hole in a stylofoam cup when all these punks recieve light and suspended sentences for major crimes.
I have yet to step foot into that new courthouse, and plan on continuing the trend.
Bruno already tried to restore Ruthies, but his extortion traits got the best of him and colluded with the clients while bringing the feds in on it.
AKsilvereagle: I hadn't thought about Bruno in a long time. Is he still locked up?
I wonder what he thought about that movie they made about him earlier this year.
(Wait, maybe that was a different Bruno...)
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