Ester is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States.

The hydraulic mining technique of directing high pressurized streams of water onto the land to uncover gold revealed that Ester had rich deposits of fossils and bones of prehistoric animals.

[4] Images taken by tourists during the 1940s provide visual evidence of prehistoric animal remains, such as tusks, skulls, and large leg bones that were washed out by the process of stripping.

By 1909, Ester City had a baseball field, a doctor, a mine workers' union local, and a teacher, but gold production was beginning to decline.

Company revitalized the town, reshaping it to do large-scale open-pit mining using enormous floating dredges and draglines.

The Cripple Creek Resort, which later became the Ester Gold Camp, featured a musical variety show including Robert W. Service's poetry, held the Malemute Saloon, a local bar, featuring Service's poem, "The Shooting of Dan McGrew", until the resort closed in 2007.

The Malemute Saloon continues to operate on selected weekends during the summer, and often features live music by local bands.

In 2017, the Ester Community Association purchased the park from a local resident, holding chili feeds, music festivals, and other fundraising events.

Today, the village features two saloons, five publishers, a library, a community hall, a secular chapel, a post office with its own zip code (99725), silversmiths and other artisans, numerous art studios, about two dozen homes, most of which were built by their owners, and three active gold mines.

The park has an ice rink that doubles as a basketball court in the summer, a children's playground, a picnic pavilion, a stage, and a soccer field.

This "town square" is actually the parking lot of the Golden Eagle Saloon, divided in two sections by Main Street, but functions as a focal point and central gathering place during celebrations such as the Fourth of July and New Year's Eve.

Private residences, the John Trigg Ester Library, and the Golden Eagle Saloon surround the square.

The largest Ester employers are seasonal, with Judie Gumm Designs, and the local mines as the businesses with the most employees.

Because Fairbanks acts as a draw (due to its larger market and resources) for such things as big-box stores and fast food chains, Ester has been able to retain its mining village feel.

This is important to Ester's tourist economy, which capitalizes on the status of the gold camp buildings as a historic landmark.

In response to the closure of the Gold Camp, a group of local business owners have formed the EMCE (or Ester Ministry of Community Enterprise), which has been accepted as an ad hoc committee of the Ester Community Association, to support Ester-area businesses and craftspeople.

The EMCE occasionally sponsors a local open-air farmers' market, and a Planting Day to beautify the village.

[citation needed] Richard A. Fineberg is an investigative journalist living in Ester[15] who specializes in petroleum development and environment-related issues.

[citation needed] Eleanor Loback Garwood (1919-1989) better known as Ida Lane Clausen, was for years a main attraction for the variety show at the Malemute Saloon.

Born and raised in Blakely and Edison, Georgia, she played rag time piano, sang, danced and acted on stage,[17] published a cookbook that continues to be distributed by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Agency, and wrote columns for the Fairbanks News-Miner.

Because the village is surrounded by boreal forests, moose, ermine, snowshoe hare, foxes, least shrew, lynx, American red squirrel, porcupine, red-backed vole, and other northern mammals are commonly seen in Ester.

[18] Many bird species thrive in the area such as black capped chickadee, boreal chickadee, hawk owl, cliff swallow, hairy woodpecker, spruce grouse, ruffed grouse, ruby-crowned kinglet, trumpeter swan, Canada jay, raven, and pine grosbeak.

[19] Insects common in Ester include numerous species of bumblebees,[20] hornets, yellow jackets, and wasps.

Fishing, hunting, and food gathering are important aspects of Alaskan living in general, both for recreation and for subsistence, and Ester is no exception.

Ester has a strong art community, including painters, photographers, collagists, sculptors, metalsmiths, and woodworkers.

An informal mixed media 'school of assemblage' may be said to exist in Ester: several local artists rely on dumpster finds, printed materials, and historically significant items in their artwork, with themes relating to religious iconography, local history, and political satire.Mines, having been the central reason for the village's existence for most of its history, are still important in Ester culture.

The Ester Community Association sponsors an annual Fourth of July parade[29] that travels from the village square on Main Street past the post office, turning left onto Old Nenana Highway and ending about one mile away at the Ester Community Park.

The parade features giant puppets, a children's bike brigade, small scale floats frequently with satirical themes, antique cars and trucks, and dancing by the crew of the Ester Volunteer Fire Department or other groups.

Summer residents of Calypso Farm throw vegetables to the crowd, and local politicians and community organizations hand out literature and candy.

The Red Hackle Pipe Band, a local music group which plays authentic Scottish bagpipes, drums, and flutes, traditionally begins the parade.