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Big Dipper Ice Arena

1968 establishments in AlaskaAlaska building and structure stubsBuildings and structures in Fairbanks, AlaskaFairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska geography stubsIndoor arenas in Alaska
Indoor ice hockey venues in AlaskaRelocated buildings and structures in AlaskaSports venues completed in 1968Tourist attractions in Fairbanks, AlaskaWestern United States sports venue stubs
Big Dipper Fairbanks Alaska
Big Dipper Fairbanks Alaska

The Big Dipper Ice Arena, colloquially known as "The Big Dipper", is a multi-purpose arena in Fairbanks, Alaska. The arena is owned and operated by the Fairbanks North Star Borough. Originally constructed as an airplane hangar for the Lend-Lease program in Tanacross, southeast of Fairbanks, the building was dismantled, transported to Fairbanks and reassembled in 1968. It has undergone two major renovations since then. The building is home to the Fairbanks Ice Dogs ice hockey team. The borough's parks and recreation department is headquartered in the building.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Big Dipper Ice Arena (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Big Dipper Ice Arena
19th Avenue, Fairbanks South Fairbanks

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Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 64.830231 ° E -147.746416 °
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Address

19th Avenue
99707 Fairbanks, South Fairbanks
Alaska, United States
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Big Dipper Fairbanks Alaska
Big Dipper Fairbanks Alaska
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Weeks Field

Weeks Field was the first airport for Fairbanks, Alaska, existing from 1923 to 1951, when most operations were moved to Fairbanks International Airport. In later years, the term Weeks Field came to be known for neighborhoods of Fairbanks in the path and vicinity of the former airstrip. Most of the area became a city (later borough) park and residential areas, with the few surviving buildings serving mostly commercial functions. Weeks Field was built in 1923 on the site of a baseball field named Weeks Ball Park, which had served as an impromptu landing strip for airplanes prior to the construction of the airport. On July 4, 1923, Carl Ben Eielson flew the first commercial aircraft flight in Alaska from Weeks Field. The baseball field/race track was named after John W. Weeks. Noel Wien and Bill Yunker made the first non-stop flight between Anchorage and Fairbanks on 6 July 1924, taking off from Delaney Park Strip and landing at Weeks Field in under 4 hours.On 20 Oct. 1928, Wien Alaska Airways, Inc. was incorporated with Noel Wien as president, Ralph Wien as vice-president, and Miners and Merchants Bank president Granville (Grant) R. Jackson as secretary. The new company built a hangar at Weeks Field.: 255–256 During the Second World War, Weeks Field was used by the U.S. Army Air Corps, which also built nearby Ladd Army Airfield. The construction of Denali Elementary School, which began in 1950 near the western end of the runway, signaled the end of active operations for Weeks Field. The Fairview Manor apartment complex and a subdivision of single-family homes followed soon after in the immediate area. In 1951, the control tower for the field was closed, which burned down shortly afterward. Most operators had moved to the newly opened Fairbanks International Airport. Several operators who had felt bitter over being forced to move, led by Jess Bachner, established the Phillips Field airstrip several miles northwest of Fairbanks, near College. The city of Fairbanks later converted the area to a park, originally called Wien Park. The park is currently owned by the Fairbanks North Star Borough, which assumed control of the former city parks, and the Weeks Field name has been restored to the property. The borough built the Noel Wien Public Library in 1977 on a portion of the former airfield, after the site was originally proposed to house a new police station for Fairbanks. A number of structures which supported operations for the airfield still stand. Most prominent is the former Pan American Airways hangar, which currently houses commercial and office space as well as a bowling alley. A Lutheran church, which may resemble a hangar but was built in 1960 as a church, lies south of the Pan Am hangar. The former Gillam Airways hangar, which anchors the current Gillam Way at its intersection with Airport Way, has housed numerous businesses over the years and is currently home to a pawn shop. In 2009, work began on demolishing Fairview Manor and replacing it with a new housing complex. The new housing complex is also named after the airfield and located on a portion of its grounds.

Midnight Sun Game
Midnight Sun Game

The Midnight Sun Game is an amateur baseball game played every summer solstice at Growden Memorial Park in Fairbanks, Alaska, United States. Because the sun is out for almost 24 hours a day, the game starts at about 10:30 at night and completes around 1:30 the next morning. However, because Fairbanks's summer time zone differs by about an hour from local solar time, coupled with the state's observance of daylight saving time, the game may not actually last until solar midnight, at about 1:53. Famous players who have appeared in the game include Tom Seaver, Dave Winfield, Terry Francona, Harold Reynolds, Jason Giambi, and Bill "Spaceman" Lee. After Noel Wien's arrival in 1924, he noted, "The baseball team played on weekends, and on June 21 and July 4 they always started a game at midnight sharp, just to indicate that this was the farthest city in the country."The first game was in 1906. Artificial light has never been used. The sun does dip below the horizon for about an hour. Since 1960, the game has been hosted by the Alaska Goldpanners, a collegiate summer baseball team based in Fairbanks. As the Goldpanners have been without a league since leaving the Alaska Baseball League in 2015, the opponent has typically been picked from other collegiate summer teams from anywhere in the United States. In 2020 the Goldpanners pulled out of the contest due to the coronavirus pandemic and local amateur squads played the game instead, with a local American Legion Baseball squad facing the local town team baseball squad. The game has never been rained out; the game narrowly avoided a rainout in 2020 after heavy downpours flooded the field earlier in the day, but the two competing teams were unwilling not to let the game go forward and cleared the field to the best of their ability to allow the game to go on. For 2021, the game expanded into a Midnight Sun Tournament, with a doubleheader consisting of the final of the American Legion Baseball tournament leading into the Goldpanners' Midnight Sun Game.