Happy birthday, UAF!

May 3, 2019

Tori Tragis

UAF students, staff and alumni gathered outside the Gruening Building on May 3, 2017, to witness a reenactment of Gov. Strong signing the bill creating the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines on May 3, 1917. UAF photo by Zayn Roohi.
UAF students, staff and alumni gathered outside the Gruening Building on May 3, 2017, to witness a reenactment of Gov. Strong signing the bill creating the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines on May 3, 1917. UAF photo by Zayn Roohi.


Alaska’s first college came to life, on paper, 102 years ago today. Territorial Gov. John Strong signed a bill creating the Alaska Agricultural College and School of Mines on May 3, 1917.

Two years earlier, at the urging of Territorial Delegate James Wickersham, Congress had set aside land for the college on a ridge called Troth Yeddha’ by local Athabascan people.

Still, many in Alaska were skeptical about creating a college in Fairbanks. The bill to formally establish the institution squeaked through the Alaska Territorial Legislature’s House on the margin of one changed mind. Gov. Strong signed the legislation despite thinking it misguided. Then five years passed before any classes were offered. In the college’s first few decades, it came close to closing at least once.

However, with support from Alaskans, the college survived and expanded. In 1935, it was renamed the University of Alaska. Forty years later, three universities — in Fairbanks, Anchorage and Juneau —were organized under the statewide UA system.

Today, the University of Alaska Fairbanks, still based at Troth Yeddha’, serves more than 8,000 students. It spends about $100 million annually on research. 

Learn more about UAF's history on the centennial website and watch a video time capsule of its first 100 years.