Fairbanks Assembly Votes 7-2 To Rename Pioneer Park Back To Alaskaland

THE COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL Whatever you want to call it, this place is terrific Fairbanks Pioneer Park at the end of last summer...

THE COPPER RIVER COUNTRY JOURNAL

Whatever you want to call it, this place is terrific

Fairbanks Pioneer Park at the end of last summer's season. (Photo, Country Journal)

It's Alaskaland

And it's a wrap.

After dozens of letters to the editor in the Fairbanks Daily News Miner, the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly has renamed Pioneer Park. The argument? Should Pioneer Park be called Alaskaland once again, as it had in the past?

Actually, many Alaskans (as Alaskans do) had never changed the name in their minds, and had kept on calling it 'Alaskaland' for years.

This April of 2026, the original name won out officially, in a 7 to 2 vote by the assembly. The park, which covers 44 acres in downtown Fairbanks, will now be known – once again – as 'Alaskaland.'

The big, open-air park, crammed with rescued historic buildings, held the name Alaskaland for years, starting in 1968. The name was changed in 2001, 25 years ago – some said with the thought that the free historic park sounded too much like a wannabe 'Disneyland.'

The Pioneers of Alaska, an historic group, runs the Pioneer Museum in the park.

Although there was a merry-go-round and miniature golf, the park is not a park that's anything like the magical and phoney world of Disneyland, but a unique and free-access repository for churches, log cabins, lodges and buildings that were on their way to destruction with the growth of Fairbanks. It's a safe haven for Fairbanks' considerable history.

In Fairbanks, history is important. As Fairbanks has grown over the years, dozens of historic buildings were salvaged from places that had been targeted for gas stations or stores. The cabins were carefully hauled to the site and arrayed along its small reconstructed streets. The project led to the making of historic signs. Curators and volunteers staff the buildings in the summer, explaining Alaska's history to travelers.

But, in the past year, there has been turmoil, as Fairbanksans debated whether the original name should be reinstated – in part, apparently, because of the word 'pioneer' which, some believed, didn't include the concept of Native Americans and Tanana lands.

The debates on whether or not the park should be called 'Alaskaland' or 'Pioneer Park' have been surprisingly heartfelt, and intense. One person suggested that the entry sign should include both names.

But, now that it's over, and 'Alaskaland' finally won out, what isn't in debate is that the vast historic park in Fairbanks is the town's cultural centerpiece – a uniting, durable, honest and valuable record of the city's past, its Gold Rush era and its history.