James Wickersham

James Wickersham, a 43-year-old politically active Tacoma lawyer, came to �ֻ�ֱ�� as a newly appointed federal judge in 1900. Mostly based in Fairbanks, Wickersham spent eight years trying cases across the state before �ֻ�ֱ��ns elected him delegate to Congress. There, despite having no vote, he successfully pushed acts that brought the territory an elected legislature, a railroad, its first national park and a land grant for what would become the University of �ֻ�ֱ��.

The university land grant bill passed on March 4, 1915. Traveling by train, ship and sleigh, Wickersham returned to Fairbanks, where he organized a July 4 ceremony to dedicate a symbolic cornerstone to the future university. He set the concrete block on a ridge west of town that Athabascan people called Troth Yeddha’.

Two years later, the �ֻ�ֱ�� Territorial Legislature followed Wickersham’s lead by establishing the �ֻ�ֱ�� Agricultural College and School of Mines.

Wickersham’s cornerstone, rededicated on its centennial in 2015, remains prominently displayed in the university’s central square.

More online about James Wickersham:

A by the Tanana-Yukon Historical Society
A portrait of (PDF) in �ֻ�ֱ�� and his efforts to build a comfortable home in the gold rush town of Fairbanks
The state Division of Parks and Outdoor Recreation’s page for the , his Juneau home
in �ֻ�ֱ��’s Digital Archives

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James Wickersham

James Wickersham

Executive committee

Planning committee

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