At one time a flourishing mining and lumbering town, is marked by an abandoned depot. A few houses scattered under large trees are occupied; but across the river the deserted structures built by the Eatonville Lumber Company during an earlier logging boom are mournful reminders of feverishly active days. Near the depot and mine bunkers are an old school and a rambling structure which once housed a large lumber mill. A few logging locomotives lie rusting along the tracks.

Fairfax was once a busy coal-mining town south of Buckley on the Carbon River in central Pierce County. Sixty coke ovens were in operation in 1902. It was named by W. A. McNeil, who came from Fairfax, Iowa. The Iowa town had been named for Fairfax County, Virginia. Lower Fairfax is completely deserted while there are some homes in Upper Fairfax on the north side of the river.