Ralph Jacobus Fairbanks

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Ralph Jacobus Fairbanks (1857-1942) was an American prospector, entrepreneur and pioneer who established several towns in the Death Valley area of California, including Fairbanks Springs ^[1] (1904-05) , Shoshone (1910), and Baker (1929).

Ralph was born to Mormon pioneer parents David and Susan Mandeville Fairbanks in Payson, Utah, on December 26, 1857 ^[2]. He was a descendant of Jonathan Fairbanks, whose 17th-century house still stands in Dedham, Massachusetts. He married Celestia Johnson in 1877 and they had eleven children ^[3], but only eight survived to adulthood. He followed a job with the railroad at the turn of the century south to Las Vegas, Nevada, and eventually moved his family to Death Valley, California.

Earlier in 1883 Fairbanks had been among those called by John Taylor to start a new settlement in the Sevier Valle.^[4]

R.J. "Dad" Fairbanks, as he was known to locals, built businesses and towns throughout the region and built the first Standard Oil service station ^[5] in the area, in Baker, California . He was well known for saving tourists and prospectors who wandered into the desert and also recovered the bodies of those who were not lucky enough to be found in time.

When Ralph was in his 70s, he moved, with his wife, Celeste, to Santa Paula, California, where she died in 1938. He then moved to Hollywood, California, where he died in 1942.

Despite that fact that his parents and wife were LDS, Fairbanks was never a devout member of the faith.^[6]