The interior.

• Author: Hill, Robin Mackey
• Position: Business opportunities - Know Alaska

Alaska's Interior brings to mind many images -- vast, timbered wilderness; small, scattered communities; massive mountain ranges; mighty, meandering rivers; the wondrous aurora borealis ... and glittering gold. The treasures lay buried for centuries beneath the permafrost of the Tanana Valley, until white men in the late 1800s began scratching the earth's surface and wading streams in search of the precious metal.

Scattered discoveries were made at sites such as Fortymile and at Birch Creek. Then, in July 1902, Italian prospector Felix Pedro discovered gold just north of present-day Fairbanks, setting off a stampede that gave birth to the town and helped establish it as the financial, commercial and transportation hub of the Interior.

Most of those who came in search of Fairbanks gold were experienced prospectors, accustomed to life in the Far North. As a result, Fairbanks soon became an established, thriving community.

Ninety years after Pedro came down from the hills with news of his find, claims still are being selected and discoveries of gold still are being made in and around Fairbanks. In the first nine months of 1991, for example, 1,927 new mining claims were filed in the Fairbanks Recording District, a 22 percent increase over the same period in 1990.

By far the largest gold operation proposed for development is the Fort Knox project on Gilmore Dome north of town. A preliminary feasibility study suggests there is enough gold there to justify building one of the nation's largest open-pit mines, a project that could cost $200 million and, when fully operational, employ up to 250 people. According to the study, the mine could yield as much as 4.3 million ounces of gold during a 12-year period; more conservative estimates put the amount at 3.2 million ounces.

Based on current data, it's believed that building the mine would keep from 400 to 600 construction workers busy for almost two years. "A lot of the money that will be pumped into the Fairbanks economy will come in the form of construction jobs," says Leslye Korvola, manager of the Fairbanks North Star Borough's Community Research Center.

The Fort Knox project would inject new money into the community at a time when state revenues are declining, leaving local governments to make up the difference. And although the project would increase the number of people involved in mining by two or three times current levels, Korvola points out that those workers still would represent less than 2 percent of the borough's total work force.

Ron Ricketts, executive director of the Fairbanks Industrial Development Corp., says $60 million to $70 million a year for labor, power and support services will flow back into the Fairbanks economy if Fort Knox is built. And with increased vocational training expected to be made available, most of those hired to work at the mine likely would come from the Fairbanks labor force.

GEOGRAPHY

The vast Interior encompasses some 165,000 square miles, an area slightly larger than the entire state of California. Although the region covers almost one-third of Alaska's land mass, it is home to less than 17 percent of the state's population. The Interior is, in many ways, what many people think of when they think of Alaska -- a huge expanse of wilderness teeming with wildlife and largely inhabited by self-sufficient Native Alaskans and homesteaders who live, hunt, fish and trap in some of the state's most remote nooks and crannies.

In general terms, the Interior is bounded on the east by the Canadian border, on the south by the glacier-hung Alaska Range, to the west by the Yukon and Koyukuk rivers and by the transitional zone of the Bering Sea coastal region, and on the north by the Brooks Range, which serves as a shield against harsh arctic weather. The Arctic Circle sweeps down into the region.

The Interior is characterized by treeless tundra, coniferous forests, low rolling hills, braided streams and ponds, marshes, swamps and waterways galore. The highlands are well-drained and nearly devoid of plant life. The lower hillsides are covered with thick forests of black and white spruce, paper birch, quaking aspen and black cottonwood.

In addition to gentle hills and jagged mountain ranges, the Interior is home to 5 of the state's 10 longest rivers, including the mighty Yukon. Some 1,400 miles of the state's longest river flow through the Interior, with another 475 miles traveling through Canada.

Also found in the Interior are the Porcupine (555 miles), Koyukuk (554 miles), Tanana (531 miles) and Birch Creek (314 miles) rivers, as well as the headwaters of the Kuskokwim River, which at 540 miles is the state's fourth longest river. Spring floods in...