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Chatanika, Alaska

Unincorporated community in the state of Alaska, United States

Field	Value
official_name	Chatanika, Alaska
image_skyline	TVRR train at Chatanika, Alaska, 1916.jpg
imagesize	240px
image_caption	Train of the Tanana Valley Railroad at the station in Chatanika, Alaska, 1916
pushpin_map	USA Alaska
pushpin_label	Chatanika
pushpin_label_position	bottom
pushpin_mapsize	300
pushpin_map_caption	Location in the U.S. state of Alaska
coordinates
coor_pinpoint	USGS GNIS
subdivision_type	Country
subdivision_name	United States
subdivision_type1	State
subdivision_name1	Alaska
subdivision_type2	Borough
subdivision_name2	Fairbanks North Star
subdivision_type3	Township
subdivision_name3	T N R W Meridian
leader_title	Borough mayor
leader_name	Bryce J. Ward
leader_title1	State senator
leader_name1	Click Bishop (R)
leader_title2	State rep.
leader_name2	Dave Talerico (R)
established_title	Settled
established_date	1904
named_for	Chatanika River
unit_pref	Imperial
area_magnitude
elevation_footnotes
elevation_m	273
elevation_ft	896
timezone	Alaska (AKST)
utc_offset	-9
timezone_DST	AKDT
utc_offset_DST	-8
postal_code_type	ZIP code
postal_code	99712
area_code	907 (local exchange phones use the 389 prefix)
area_code_type	Area code
blank_name	FIPS code
blank_info	02-12460
blank1_name	GNIS feature ID
blank1_info

Chatanika is a small unincorporated community located in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States, north-northeast of the city of Fairbanks. The community runs along an approximately 20 mi stretch of the Steese Highway, the majority of which sees the highway paralleled by the Chatanika River. The community consists of sparsely scattered residential subdivisions, several roadside businesses, a boat launch where the Steese Highway crosses the Chatanika River, relics of past gold mining operations in the area and the Poker Flat Research Range operated by the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Chatanika was one of over a dozen small communities in the vicinity of Fairbanks whose prosperity was tied to gold mining during the Fairbanks Gold Rush. Chatanika, as the northern terminus of the narrow-gauge Tanana Valley Railroad, also owed much of its early prosperity to railroad operations, which were closely tied to the mining activity. Chatanika, along with Fox, are the only two of the numerous communities in the hills immediately north of Fairbanks which has managed to remain populated and maintain a distinct community identity.

History

A mining settlement established about 1904, it received a railroad station when the Tanana Valley Railroad was completed in 1907. The Chatanika post office was established in 1908.

Demographics

|align-fn=center Chatanika first appeared on the 1910 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It did not appear on the 1920 census. It appeared again in 1930 as Chatanika River, but the name was restored to Chatanika in 1940. That was the last time it appeared on the census to date (as of 2010).

Etymology

The community was named after the Chatanika River.

Geography

Located 2 mi east of the confluence of Cleary Creek and the Chatanika River, Chatanika lies 20 mi northeast of Fairbanks. Its altitude is 896 ft.

Gold dredge

The Chatanika gold dredge was a historic relic of gold dredge #3 owned and operated by F.E. Company between 1928 and 1958. The dredge is located at about 27.5 mi along the Steese Highway east of Fairbanks in a 60 acre pond it dug itself, directly across the road from the Chatanika Lodge. The dredge was private property and off-limits to the public. In August 2013 an accidental fire destroyed the dredge.

References

{{cite gnis
"U.S. Decennial Census". Census.gov.
(1910). "Supplement for Alaska - Population, Agriculture, Manufactures, Mines, and Quarries".
(1920). "Population of Outlying Possessions by Civil Divisions: 1920 and earlier years".
(1930). "Population - Alaska".
(1940). "Alaska - Number of Inhabitants".
[http://fairbanks-alaska.com/fe-company.htm Fairbanks, Alaska Information Site (F.E. Company page)]
Friedman, Sam [http://www.newsminer.com/news/local_news/historic-chatanika-dredge-destroyed-by-fire-nd-fire-reported-at/article_f5a26eb6-fccf-11e2-bac2-001a4bcf6878.html Historic Gold Dredge No. 3 destroyed by fire; 2nd fire reported at Mile 47] Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, April 8, 2013

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

mining-communities-in-alaska unincorporated-communities-in-alaska unincorporated-communities-in-fairbanks-north-star-borough,-alaska

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