Every December, children across America write letters to Santa at the North Pole. Some of those letters actually get there, or at least to a North Pole. It's a small city in Alaska, complete with candy-cane streetlights, Christmas-themed street names, and a giant Santa statue. So how did a real town end up with Santa's address?
Here's the short answer. In 1952, a development company bought a homestead near Fairbanks, divided it into lots, and renamed it North Pole. They hoped the festive name would attract a toy manufacturer to the area. The toy factory never came, but the name stuck, and the town became a year-round celebration of Christmas.
Not Very Close to the Pole
Despite its name, North Pole, Alaska, is about 1,700 miles south of Earth's actual geographic North Pole. It's even about 125 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The small city sits in the Fairbanks North Star Borough and had a population of 2,243 at the 2020 census.
It does get properly cold, though. Winters can drop many tens of degrees below zero Fahrenheit, and average lows stay below zero from early November to mid-March. Summers, surprisingly, can bring days in the 70s and 80s, and once in a while even the 90s.
From Davis to North Pole
The land at the heart of town was homesteaded in 1944 by Bon V. and Bernice Davis. In those years, the Richardson Highway south of Fairbanks was dotted with homesteads. When the Alaska Railroad built a siding on the Davis land as part of a branch line to Eielson Air Force Base, it was named Davis, and for a while the little settlement went by that name too.
Then, in 1952, the Dahl and Gaske Development Company bought the Davis homestead and gave it a much merrier name. The City of North Pole was officially incorporated on January 15, 1953, from parts of the Davis homestead and a neighboring homestead. For years, the town's economy leaned largely on its trading posts.
Santa Claus House
One of the first city council members, Conrad B. Miller, opened a trading post along the highway in 1952. It became known as Santa Claus House, and it grew into the town's biggest attraction. For almost 20 years, it was also home to North Pole's first post office.
Today, Santa Claus House is famous for the world's largest fiberglass Santa Claus statue, standing outside. A small group of domesticated reindeer lives just outside, too.
Where Santa's Mail Goes
Before Christmas each year, the North Pole post office receives hundreds of thousands of letters to Santa. Thousands more people send their holiday cards there just to get the town's special postmark. The post office advertises ZIP code 99705 as Santa's ZIP code, and a community program answers letters addressed to 1 Santa Claus Lane.
The holiday spirit is everywhere. Streets have names like Santa Claus Lane, St. Nicholas Drive, Snowman Lane, and Kris Kringle Drive. Streetlights are decorated like candy canes. Fire trucks and ambulances are red, while police cars are green and white. From 2013 to 2017, the town even had an all-female roller derby league called the North Pole Babes in Toyland.
So if you ever drive the Richardson Highway near Fairbanks, stop by and say hello. It may not be the real North Pole, but it's about as close as most of us will ever get to Santa's front porch.
