[RightWhale]

Officially the Borough is 85,000. The City of Fairbanks is just a dot on the map of the Borough. NP is another dot towards the bottom edge of the map. Anticipation of the gas pipeline is no doubt a big part of the hustle and bustle. The military buildup as the focus changes toward the Pacific is also a big part of it. A lot of it is simply the ancient American tradition of moving to a hot economic zone and selling out a couple years later. If you left two years ago you have missed a fundamental change in the activity level. It runs around the clock, no time off winter or summer. People used to be home more or less by 9 PM. Now they roll in 6 AM. I heard someone last spring describe Fairbanks as crazy insane, and no one seems to seriously deny that now.

[Brad C.]

I would imagine in another month or two the term "hot" won't be applying to the area, other than economically.

As for crazy insane, I would tend to think of the pipeline days and I am pretty sure it is nothing like that now. Still, the reports my lovely wife brought back reflected an enormous amount of growth and development in the two years since we left. I am sorry we missed it, because I always thought Fairbanks was just waiting to blossom out. I do hope that the boom cycles are over with up there though I tend to doubt it.

Are those anti-Bush protesters still hanging out on College & University?