Eagle (Alaska) (Hän Athabascan: Tthee T’äwdlenn) is a village on the Yukon in Interior Alaska, close to the border to Yukon.

Understand

Eagle seen from Eagle Bluff

The village lies on the south bank of the Yukon River, near the Canada–US border, in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area. The Yukon territory of Canada is about 5.9 miles (9.5 km) to the east. Eagle includes the Eagle Historic District, a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

The present day centre of Eagle is home mostly to people of European descent; the population in nearby 1 Eagle Village is about 50% Han. The two settlements have less than a hundred inhabitants each.

The town enjoyed some notoriety as the setting of John McPhee's book Coming into the Country, first published in 1977. The Eagle area also is one of the locales featured on the National Geographic Channel series Life Below Zero.

History

Steamer Hannah docked at Eagle circa 1900

Prior to Europeans arriving in Alaska, the Eagle area was home to many indigenous peoples, including the Han.

The first known U.S.-built structure in Eagle was a log trading post called "Belle Isle", erected around 1874. In the late 1800s, Eagle became a supply and trading center for miners working the upper Yukon River and its tributaries. By the year 1898, Eagle's population had exceeded 1,700 persons; many newcomers journeyed to the area with word of the Klondike Gold Rush.

In 1901, Eagle became the first incorporated city of the Interior Alaska. It was named for the many eagles that nested on nearby Eagle Bluff. An army camp, Fort Egbert, was built at Eagle in 1900. A telegraph line from Valdez reached Eagle in 1903. In 1905, Roald Amundsen arrived in Eagle and telegraphed the news of the Northwest Passage to the rest of the world.

The ensuing gold rushes in Nome and Fairbanks eventually lured people away from Eagle. In 1903, the division court was moved from Eagle to Fairbanks. By 1910, Eagle's population had declined to its present-day level, below 200 people. Fort Egbert was abandoned in 1911.

Climate

Like most of Alaska, Eagle has a subarctic climate with long, severely cold, dry winters, occasionally moderated by chinook winds, and short, warm summers. In the absence of chinook moderation, winter temperatures can be dangerously cold: in December 1917, the temperature averaged −46 °F (−43.3 °C). When chinooks occur, winter temperatures can get above 32 °F (0.0 °C).

Get in

Eagle is at the end of the AK 5, the Taylor Highway, of 151 mi (243 km), which begins on the Alaska Highway near Tetlin and comes in via Chicken. The Taylor Highway can also be reached from Dawson City, Canada, by YK 9, the Top of the World Highway.

There is 1 an airstrip in Eagle.

Coming in by the Yukon River is possible.

See

Many of the buildings from the Gold Rush years are preserved as part of the Eagle Historic District, a National Historic Landmark district.

Every February, Eagle hosts a checkpoint for the long-distance Yukon Quest sled dog race.

• 1 Eagle Historic District. A well-preserved example of the historic development in Northern Alaska. Fort Egbert was built in 1889 to serve a central governmental role for the area. Over 100 buildings from this era survive, including the federal courthouse, which was funded by fines enacted against the rowdy inhabitants. The district was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1970 and was designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1978.  

Do

Eagle is a good set-off point for visits to the Yukon–Charley Rivers National Preserve 12 mi (19 km) downstream. The preserve lacks road access.

Connect

The postal code (ZIP code) is 99738, the area code for calling is 907.

Go next

• Yukon - Charley Rivers National Preserve
• Circle — a similar village downstream from the reserve