Assay Office--Ester, Alaska
Pen and Ink on Bristol Board, Image size 8.25"x 8.25"

Fairbanks was different from most of the other gold rush boom towns of Alaska and the Yukon
because the pay dirt was often buried under a considerable depth of overburden. Miners had to
dig down through frozen ground in drift mines to get at the gold bearing gravel. After the easy
pickings were gone the town shrank and slumbered until the Fairbanks Exploration Company,
a subsidiary of USSR&M, bought up many old claims and began large-scale dredge operations.
This building was the company's assay office at its Ester operations camp.