Ester

Ester is a census-designated place in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States. It is part of the Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 2,422 at the 2010 census.

History

Early history and founding

Ester was originally a gold mining camp on Ester Creek, with the first claim staked in February 1903 by Latham A. Jones. Jones worked with the Eagle Mining Company, the biggest claimholder on Glen Gulch in the Rampart mining district, but it was an independent miner, John "Jack" Mihalcik, a Czechoslovakian immigrant born in 1866, who was the first person to actually discover gold on Ester Creek. Mihalcik staked his claim in November 1903 but the news of the discovery of gold did not become public until the following February. By 1907, Ester City had a population of around 200 people, with a thriving mining industry. A social hall was completed in 1907, and was well known throughout the mining district for its dance floor. The hall was used for religious services as well as dances, movies, card games, parties, and other entertainment. The town had five saloons and a couple of hotels. In 1908 and 1910, the hall was the site of campaign speeches by candidates for the seat of Territorial Delegate. (Labor won in 1908, but Judge James Wickersham won the Ester precinct in 1910.) By 1909 Ester City had a baseball field, a doctor, a mine workers' union local, and a teacher, but gold production was beginning to decline.

The Berry Post Office moved in 1910 from near the Berry brothers' claim about two miles downstream from Ester City into J.C. Kinney's general store in Ester. (The post office retained the name of Berry until 1965, when it was finally changed to that of the town it had been in for 55 years.) In the mid-1920s, the Fairbanks Exploration Company began buying claims on Ester Creek, started operations in 1929, and in 1933 built a mess hall for their camp in Ester (now a historic landmark used until 2008 as a tourist attraction and hotel). The F.E. Company revitalized the town, but they also literally reshaped it, doing large-scale open-pit mining using enormous floating dredges and draglines, removing in the process much of the original sites of Berry and Ester.

Since 1940

In 1941, the Ester Community Association was founded. In 1958 The F.E. Company sold their Ester camp, and it reopened under new management as a historic resort. The Cripple Creek Resort, which later became the Ester Gold Camp, featured a musical variety show including Robert W. Service's poetry, held at a sawdust-strewn bar known as the Malemute Saloon, after Service's poem, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew", until the resort closed in 2007. In 1974 the Ester Volunteer Fire Department was officially founded (bucket brigades had existed since the 19-aughts). Gold mining continued on a small scale. In 1986, the Ester Community Association, working with the Fairbanks North Star Borough, built the Ester Community Park, which became a local center of social activity. During this period, the community also earned its nickname, the People's Republic of Ester, during a zoning battle with Joe Ryan, a member of the Fairbanks North Star Borough Assembly. Mr. Ryan used this epithet against the village, as much of the population of Ester opposed his proposed zoning changes, but the village took it on as a badge of pride, and now refer to their community by this name.

In 1987, the eleven surviving buildings of the F.E. Company's camp were listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

In 1988, Mushing magazine began publication in Ester and continued to be produced and published there until it was sold in 2005. The town became the site of a sled dog stage race between Ester and Nenana and back again, the Fireplug Sled Dog Race, which was held for ten years, from 1990 to 2001, and in which many famous mushers participated, including Dean Seibold and Jeff King. In January 1999, the town's first newspaper, The Ester Republic, was founded. In August 1999 the John Trigg Ester Library opened, a membership library named after a local resident who had started a book exchange in a nearby bar. Today the town features two saloons, five publishers, a library, a fire station, the post office, a silversmith, numerous art studios, and three active gold mines.

Geography

Ester is located at 64°51′21″N 147°58′42″W / 64.85583°N 147.97833°W / 64.85583; -147.97833 (64.855700, -147.978434).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 64.3 square miles (166.5 km2), of which 64.2 square miles (166.4 km2) is land and 0.04 square miles (0.1 km2), or 0.08%, is water.

Ester Community Park

Ester has one well-used park, maintained and improved by the Ester Community Association's Park Committee and other volunteers from the community. The park has an ice rink that doubles as a basketball court in the summer, a children's playground, a picnic pavilion, a stage, and a soccer field. The park, situated next to the Ester Volunteer Fire Department, is the site of numerous soccer games, Ester Football League games, broomball, the Fourth of July picnic, musical gatherings, and other events throughout the year.

The village square

Ester village wraps around a square at the foot of Ester Lump. This "town square" is actually the parking lot of the Golden Eagle Saloon, divided in two sections by Main Street, but functions as a focal point and central gathering place during celebrations such as the Fourth of July and New Year's Eve. Private residences, the library, and the Golden Eagle surround the square.

Ester culture

Agriculture & subsistence

Fishing, hunting, and food gathering are important aspects of Alaskan living in general, both for sport and for subsistence, and Ester is no exception. The community is zoned as rural, despite its proximity to the state's second-largest city. The great majority of Ester residents fish and/or hunt, and berry- and mushroom-picking are regular seasonal activities. Gardening has long been a part of Ester's culture, and farming has been growing in popularity since 2000, which saw the establishment of Calypso Farm & Ecology Center. Calypso provides community-supported agriculture shares for over 80 families, with other CSAs starting up in the area. The Ester library has a seed library program.

Art

Ester has a strong art community, including painters, photographers, collagistes, sculptors, metals smiths, and woodworkers. It has hosted an annual intercontinental simultaneous art exhibit since 2000, the BiPolar Art Show, with the MAAG (the Mechanical Equipment Center Alternative Art Gallery) in McMurdo, Antarctica. Three commercial galleries and several private studios provide sales venues for local and other artists.

An informal mixed-media 'school of assemblage' may be said to exist in Ester: several local artists rely on dumpster finds, printed materials, and historically significant items in their artwork, with themes relating to religious iconography, local history, and political satire.

Mining

Mines, having been the central reason for the village's existence for most of its history, are still important in Ester culture. Old dredge parts and mining equipment can be found in the forest that has grown up around the village since major dredging ended in the 1960s, some of which have been incorporated into artistic works. The Malemute Saloon's variety show capitalizes on the town's mining history, particularly the influence of Clarence Berry, whose mine at 8 Below Discovery Claim was the largest and most successful in the Ester area during its early history. Ester Dome continues to attract large mining concerns, and several small-scale gold mines provide residents with income.

Music

Ester has a vibrant local music culture, and is the site of two annual music festivals, Angry Young & Poor, a free all-day concert oriented toward area youth, and the LiBerry Music Festival & Pie Throwdown, a fundraiser for the John Trigg Ester Library. A string instrument music gathering, the Ester Jelly Jam, has an open jam every Sunday afternoon at Hartung Hall. A local group, the Lost Dog Old-Time String Band, hosts a monthly square/contra dance there. Impromptu music jams occur nightly on the saloon porches in the summer, and almost every week in the winter (inside, of course). Area venues and events regularly feature local, live music.