A bid to restore the former moniker of an iconic park in the Fairbanks North Star Borough is causing local leaders to wrestle with history, culture and community identity.
The Borough Assembly in December tasked the Borough Parks and Recreation Commission with weighing in on an ordinance that would return the name “Alaskaland” to what's now Pioneer Park.
The commission staked its support for the measure on Monday – but with a significant caveat that could chart an entirely different path forward. Commission members, in their official recommendation, are suggesting the assembly think about choosing a new name altogether.
The ordinance, if approved by the Borough Assembly as written, would appropriate $50,000 to rebrand Pioneer Park as “Alaskaland.” The move would undo a decision from 25 years ago, when the assembly made the opposite change.
Assemblymembers Scott Crass and Liz Reeves are proposing the switch. The text of their ordinance cites the borough’s 2021 Pioneer Park Master Plan, which says the name is controversial. The borough plan says many residents prefer “Alaskaland” and that some feel calling the location “Pioneer Park” alienates the region’s Indigenous people.
Crass gave a brief definition of the word “Pioneer” in a presentation to the commission Monday. He argued it carries colonial connotations, and he said Alaska Native history in the region predates the gold rush and statehood era by millennia. Crass said renaming the community hub is a way to reckon with that heritage.
“We need to be honest with ourselves about who we are as a community, and who we were, and what we want to be,” he said.
The 44-acre historical preservation park sits on the edge of the Chena River, just outside downtown Fairbanks. It’s roughly 60 years old, and it hosted the 1967 exposition that celebrated the centennial of the U.S. purchasing Alaska from Russia.
Today, the Pioneer Park grounds house museums, an arts and convention center, local vendors and a large wooden-hulled sternwheeler called the SS Nenana, which is a national historic landmark. There’s also a playground area, and a train ride runs around the park’s perimeter.
In a letter to commission members, Fairbanks Native Association Executive Director Melissa Charlie strongly supported reviving the park’s former name.
She wrote that FNA was founded in 1963, around the same time as the park, in direct response to discrimination, like signs on local businesses that barred Alaska Natives from entry. The letter says the current park name elevates a single historical perspective, and that “public spaces should unite residents, not remind some community members of exclusion from the past.”
But there is pushback to the name change. Dozens of people packed into the chambers for Monday’s meeting, including members of the Pioneers of Alaska. The group was integral to securing the land for the park in the 1960s, and members said the current name accurately reflects the park’s founding and the content of its exhibits.
Pioneers of Alaska member Jim Plaquet told the parks and rec commission that visitors know what they’re going to get when they walk in.
“That clarity starts with the park’s name: Pioneer Park,” he said. “It isn’t just a label. It’s a promise. It tells visitors that they will step back in time and experience the story of Fairbanks’ gold era firsthand.”
Pioneers of Alaska members said the name “Alaskaland,” by comparison, fails to capture the character of the historical preservation park. That was part of the rationale in 2001 when the name switched to Pioneer Park, and the 2021 master plan also concluded that “Alaskaland” has “the false connotation of a theme park.”
After some discussion Monday, parks and rec commission members voted 7-1 in favor of advising the assembly to change the name, though not exactly as the ordinance proposes. The final recommendation encourages the assembly to consider either merging the current and former names – as in, “Alaskaland Pioneer Park” – or choosing something totally new. The approved motion offered “Tanana Valley Heritage Park” as one alternative option.
Commission member Judith Kiefer Shiffler said a word like “heritage” could encompass more perspectives while still honoring the park’s character and purpose. She was the first on the commission to mention the possibility of not favoring one of the names on the table over the other.
“I just – I’m very uncomfortable pigeon-holing that which should make us all joyful,” she said.
The commission’s vote doesn’t bind the assembly to a course of action, and it’s not unheard of for commission recommendations to go unheeded. But the assembly could use the suggestion as a roadmap, and it stands to add a new layer to the debate when the body takes up the ordinance, which could be as early as next week. The agenda for the assembly's upcoming regular meeting was not yet posted as of Tuesday evening.