History & Culture

Limestone bluffs, like the Tahkandik Bluff pictured here, are common along the Yukon River.

NPS Photo by Josh Spice

 

People - Places - Stories - Collections - Archaeology

Dominating the landscape of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve is a geologically complex section of the Yukon River lying between the small communities of Eagle and Circle. The clear waters of the Charley River and its tributaries flow northward through the mountains to join the Yukon within the boundaries of the preserve. This isolated terrain, marked by extreme temperatures in both the summer and winter, is as sparsely inhabited today as it has been throughout most of human history in the area. While much of Alaska was buried under glacial ice during the last glacial maximum, beginning some 22,000 ago, the land now encompassed by the preserve was part of a vast unglaciated region known as Beringia. Clusters of stone tools found on dry tundra ridges in the uplands of the preserve are evidence that ancient hunters passed through the region for thousands of years. Some of them remained.

The stretch of Yukon River in the vicinity of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve is the traditional homeland of the Han, a linguistic group of Athapaskan-speakers whose territory extends into what is now Canada's Yukon Territory. Little is known about the Han population prior to historic contact in the mid-1800s with British fur traders of the Hudson Bay Company on the Yukon River. Anthropologists speculate that they survived in the harsh environment by seasonally shifting their settlements between fall and winter hunting camps and fish camps along the river in the summer. As in other areas of interior Alaska, Russian trade goods, such as tobacco, tea, blankets, beads, muskets, and metal implements made their way to the Han long before direct contact with Europeans. A few decades later in 1886, when a major gold strike was made on a tributary of the Yukon known as the Fortymile River, gold stampeders began to encroach upon the territory of the Han. During the ensuing Klondike gold rush when increasing numbers of miners came into the country, the Han altered their traditional patterns, eventually settling near mining towns that had sprung up along the Yukon River and entering the cash economy as guides and hunters for the miners. The gold rush period was a time of intense culture change for the Han and other Athapaskan groups in interior Alaska.

 

NPS Photo by Josh Spice

 

The overflow of Klondike stampeders led to considerable prospecting along the Yukon River's tributaries between the international boundary and Circle, a mining supply town. The first gold strikes within the boundaries of the preserve were made on Yukon tributaries, such as Fourth of July, Sam, and Ben Creeks, just before the turn of the 20th century. Towns such as Seventymile City (later moved and renamed Star City), Ivy, and Nation also sprang up at this time. By May of 1898, the town of Eagle had been established and served as the hub of mining in interior Alaska for a brief period. As seen again and again during the gold rush era, the boom period for Eagle soon faded and prospectors and miners moved on to the site of the next big gold strike.

By 1902, the rush was on to Fairbanks, and the flurry of mining activities in the vicinity of Yukon-Charley Rivers quieted down. Except for the large dredging operations on Coal and Woodchopper Creeks, placer miners worked their claims on a fairly small scale for the next several decades. Many of them enjoyed the lifestyle and solitude more than they profited in pay dirt. Miners also doubled as trappers during the winter months when the creeks were frozen. The Yukon River, also frozen for many months of the year, served as the main trail for mail carriers who traveled by dog sled to deliver the mail between Eagle and Circle. Some of the isolated cabins and camps built by the handful of rugged individualists in the region still remain on the landscape today and bear testament to a way of life that has virtually vanished in the 21st century. Fortunately for history buffs and dog-sled- racing enthusiasts, one of these structures, Slaven's Roadhouse, now serves as a checkpoint on the 1,000-mile Yukon Quest sled dog race between Whitehorse and Fairbanks. National Park Service personnel volunteer at this checkpoint to support the race. Their efforts are also a way to pay tribute to the long history of river travel, both on water and ice, in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve.