In 1906, the Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station was created as part of a nationwide plan. The site for the station was chosen by the U.S. Congress to also serve as Alaska’s first university, the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines, which opened in 1922.

The complex, on West Tanana Loop, includes many facilities typical to a working farm. The experiment farm manager’s residence sits among horticulture and agronomy buildings and the visitor’s center. Three wood-fired pottery kilns built for the art department’s use are also housed in a shed on the farm grounds. AFES conducts studies on plants and animals to benefit local, state and national interests. The main aspects of current research are the nutritional characteristics of cereal grains developed in Alaska for livestock diets and reindeer nutrition and production. The station develops strains of short grains, perennial plants, trees and shrubs that thrive in subarctic and arctic climates.

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