Interior tourism highlights.

• Author: Bostian, Kelly
• Position: Alaska

What do Alaska's interior businesses offer visitors? Residents in this heart of Alaska are friendly and full of frontier spirit and fill their tourism spin-offs with the same robust energy. It's small wonder that newcomers often remember more about the people they met in the Interior than the scenery and wildlife -- although there is plenty of that, too.

Fun in Fairbanks

Fairbanks, the hub of the Interior and Alaska's second largest city, is located in the heart of gold-mining country and steeped in gold rush history. It is also the city nearest the Arctic Circle and the land of the midnight sun.

Around June 21, the longest day of the year, Fairbanksans go a little crazy. The sun dips below the horizon for just about 3 hours, but the sky never really gets dark.

Each year the Alaska Baseball League and the Alaska Goldpanners baseball team host a visiting team for the Midnight Sun baseball game on June 21 or 22. The game begins at 10 p.m. and is played in its entirety without the aid of artificial lights.

On the weekend nearest the solstice, the zaniest of foot races takes place. Some 3,000 runners and walkers, several hundred in costume, participate in an annual 10-kilometer race through city streets.

Another uniquely Alaskan event, the world Eskimo Olympics, takes place July 21-24. The games feature dances and pageantry, but are centered on traditional Native tests of strength and agility.

For more information on Fairbanks activities, call the Fairbanks Convention and Visitors Bureau, (907) 456-5774.

Get Gold Fever

Visitors with gold fever stand a good chance of finding a cure at Little El Dorado Gold Camp, at mile 1 Elliott Highway, about 11 miles north of Fairbanks.

Gold miner Andy Wescott escorts would-be prospectors to his gold claim in the Fox gold fields on a narrow-gauge railroad. There visitors see Wescott's modern placer-mining operation, a historic gold camp and learn the history of gold mining and mining techniques. Once educated, the fledgling prospectors are given a gold pan and a poke of gold-laden dirt to try their hand at panning.

Two tours take off daily at 10 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. The trip takes about two hours. Cost is $20 per person and $15 for children. Call (907) 474-8600 for information.

A Rollicking Resort

The other side of the gold rush, the part where miners spent their nuggets on entertainment, is alive and exciting at the Cripple Creek Resort and Malamute Saloon in Ester.

The 1930s gold camp, about 15 miles south of...