Mission Statement:

Bringing all souls to Jesus through Mary, the Immaculate Conception

Church History:

The “little church” was built by Father Francis Monroe, S.J., in 1904. Its first location was at Dunkel Street near Front Street, situated across the Chena River from its present site and some four hundred feet upstream.

Fairbanks was established as a trading post by Captain E.T. Barnette, in the late summer of 1902. His chartered vessel, “La Velle Young”, had come some twelve miles up the Chena River, a tributary of the Tanana River, when the water became shallow hindering further progress of the vessel. So the captain hurriedly unloaded his cargo and set to work building cabins from trees felled on the spot.

The first name given to this small campsite was Barnette’s Landing. Barnette, wishing to attract Judge Wickersham to set up the District Courthouse in his own, offered to name it Wickersham. The judge made no promises as to the location of the courthouse, but he did say it would please him to have the new place named Fairbanks, after the judge’s good friend, Charles Warren Fairbanks, who became Vice-President of the United States in 1905. Barnette agreed, and the town was named after Wickersham’s friend – Fairbanks.