Less than 120 miles from the Arctic Circle, Fairbanks offers the unique balance of city living on the edge of Alaska’s vast wilderness. While the great outdoors are all around, the urban core doesn’t look terribly different from any other small American city, with a collective of storefronts and mid-rise buildings downtown surrounded by charming homes and apartment communities. The city is home to thousands of students enrolled at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (whose campus can be found on the west end of town), as well as armed service personnel and civilian military employees working at nearby Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base.