North Pole, Alaska

City
	Location of North Pole in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska
	Coordinates: 64°45′4″N 147°21′7″W / 64.75111°N 147.35194°WCoordinates: 64°45′4″N 147°21′7″W / 64.75111°N 147.35194°W
Country	United States
State	Alaska
Government
• Mayor	Michael Welch
Area
• Total	4.099 sq mi (10.62 km2)
• Land	4.085 sq mi (10.58 km2)
• Water	0.014 sq mi (0.04 km2)
Population (2020)
• Total	2,243
Website	www.northpolealaska.com

North Pole is a city in Alaska. It is hundreds of miles from the actual North Pole, which is in an area that is very cold and very hard to get to. The town of North Pole is about 15 miles (24 km) from Fairbanks, the only big city in the Interior of Alaska. At first it was just a small settlement called "Davis" with a stop on the Alaska Railroad. The first people to form a local government there decided to call it North Pole. Soon a trading post that had been opened there became a Christmas themed shop called the Santa Claus House and was a big attraction for tourists who came to Alaska. The city's mayor pro tem is city council member Santa Claus.^[4]

A giant wooden Santa and a "North Pole" are outside of the Santa Claus House

North Pole, Alaska Media

Frequently photographed "Welcome to North Pole" sign at the eastern end of Fifth Avenue, near its intersection with the Richardson Highway.
Main exit to North Pole off the Richardson Highway. Badger Road, a loop road off the Richardson between Fairbanks and North Pole, was named for Harry Markley Badger (1869–1965), a pioneer Fairbanks resident who established a farm along the road. Inside North Pole city limits, the road becomes Santa Claus Lane, one of many Christmas-themed streets in the city.
Beaver Lake in North Pole, AK
Climate chart for North Pole
Santa Claus (his legal name, born Thomas O'Connor) was first elected to North Pole's city council in 2015. He appears with a group of children who protested United States immigration policy in downtown Fairbanks in June 2018.