We reconstructed the history of wildfire in the study area of the 1999 FROSTFIRE experimental fire in interior Alaska using information from fire-scarred trees, fire-killed trees, tree recruitment dates, tree radial growth increases, and aerial photographs. This combination of methods resulted in more temporal and spatial precision than would have been possible with any subset. Stand-destroying wildfires affected 93% of the FROSTFIRE watershed and 47% of the control watershed between 1896 and 1925. We found no evidence for severe fires earlier in the 19th century or later in the 20th century, suggesting a temporal cluster of fires. The ignition of some of these fires may be associated with early 20th century mining activity near the study area. There is no evidence that any part of the study area has been burned by more than one severe fire in the past 200-250 years, suggesting fire frequencies lower than previously published estimates. Forests with prefire species composition developed within several decades following fire in birch forests and black spruce forests. South-facing birch forests show no evidence of succeeding to white spruce forests 200 years after fire.