Alaskan History
Clay Street Cemetery is a cemetery located in Fairbanks, Alaska that is on the National Register of Historic Places. It was established in 1903 and contains the remains of many of Fairbanks' founding pioneers, including Mary Pedro, wife of Felix Pedro, the miner who discovered the gold that led to the city's founding.
The Clay Street Cemetery Fairbanks’ Final Resting Place for Alaskan Pioneers The Clay Street Cemetery was established in 1903 as the first cemetery of the new town of Fairbanks, founded two years before. Located on the southeastern edge of the original townsite, the cemetery officially closed in 1938, when the City of Fairbanks established the Birch Hill Cemetery, which was, at the time, far from the actual city limits. Clay Street Cemetery is located at the end of 5th Avenue, bounded on the south by 7th Avenue, on the north by 4th Avenue, and to the east it faces the Steese Expressway, with the Chena River beyond, in the historic section known as ”Eastside." In 1982 the cemetery was listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, which noted: “The significance of the Clay Street Cemetery (first in the new settlement of Fairbanks) lies in the fact that it holds the last remains of many outstanding Alaskans. Through their tireless efforts these pioneers laid the foundation for Alaska’s second largest city. Many of these men and women were not just socially, politically, or economically prominent, they were a cross section of Alaska's late 19th and early 20th Century collective heritage. The pioneers who arrived in the Northland during the great gold strikes—who experienced extreme adversities of weather and the vagaries of frontier mining boom camp life have consecrated this ground. Clay Street Cemetery documents a time, a place, and people who were significant in the vast Interior of Alaska.” More about the people buried there from the National Register of Historic Places: “The Clay Street burials represent a broad spectrum of race, creed, geographic origin, and avocations—much more than might be expected. The people buried at Clay Street were essentially rugged and typical sourdough prospectors, miners, craftsmen and itinerant
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