Fort Yukon
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Fort Yukon Gwichyaa Zheh |
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|---|---|
| City | |
 Fort Yukon
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| Coordinates: 66°34′3″N 145°15′23″W / 66.56750°N 145.25639°WCoordinates: 66°34′3″N 145°15′23″W / 66.56750°N 145.25639°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Alaska |
| Census Area | Yukon-Koyukuk |
| Incorporated | February 17, 1959 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Richard Carroll, Jr. |
| • State senator | Click Bishop (R) |
| • State rep. | Dave Talerico (R) |
| Area | |
| • Total | 7.4 sq mi (19.2 km2) |
| • Land | 7 sq mi (18.1 km2) |
| • Water | 0.4 sq mi (1.1 km2) |
| Elevation | 427 ft (130 m) |
| Population (2010) | |
| • Total | 583 |
| Time zone | Alaska (AKST) (UTC-9) |
| • Summer (DST) | AKDT (UTC-8) |
| ZIP code | 99740 |
| Area code | 907 |
| FIPS code | 02-26760 |
Fort Yukon (Gwichyaa Zheh in Gwich’in, originally, Gwich’in: Gwich'yaa Zhee; translation: "house on the Flats") is a city in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population, predominately Gwich'in Alaska Natives, was 583 at the 2010 census.
Fort Yukon is the hometown of Alaska Congressman Don Young. It is served by Fort Yukon Airport. It is also known for having the record highest temperature in Alaska.
This area north of the Arctic Circle was occupied for thousands of years by cultures of indigenous people and in historic times by the Gwich’in people.
What became the village of Fort Yukon developed from a trading post, Fort Yukon, established by Alexander Hunter Murray of the Hudson's Bay Company, on 25 June 1847. Murray drew numerous sketches of fur trade posts and of people and wrote the Journal of the Yukon, 1847–48, which gave valuable insight into the culture of the Gwich’in at the time. While the post was in Russian America, the Hudson's Bay Company continued to trade there until the American traders expelled it in 1869, following the Alaska Purchase when the Alaska Commercial Company took over the post.
During the Klondike Gold Rush, in the winter of 1897-1898, Fort Yukon received two hundred prospectors from Dawson City, which was short of supply. A post office was established on July 12, 1898 with John Hawksly as its first postmaster. The settlement suffered over the following decades as a result of several infectious disease epidemics and a 1949 flood.
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