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James Wickersham

James Wickersham, a 43-year-old politically active Tacoma lawyer, came to ²ÝÁñÉçÇø as a newly appointed federal judge in 1900. Mostly based in Fairbanks, Wickersham spent eight years trying cases across the state before ²ÝÁñÉçÇøns 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 ²ÝÁñÉçÇø.

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 ²ÝÁñÉçÇø Territorial Legislature followed Wickersham’s lead by establishing the ²ÝÁñÉçÇø 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 ²ÝÁñÉçÇø 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 ²ÝÁñÉçÇø’s Digital Archives