Circle (Alaska)
| Circle | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 Circle, September 1899 |
|||
| Location in Alaska | |||
|
|||
| Basic data | |||
| Foundation : | 1893 | ||
| State : | United States | ||
| State : | Alaska | ||
| Borough : | Unorganized Borough | ||
| Coordinates : | 65 ° 50 ′ N , 144 ° 5 ′ W | ||
| Time zone : | Alaska ( UTC − 9 / −8 ) | ||
| Residents : | 104 (as of 2010) | ||
| Population density : | 0.4 inhabitants per km 2 | ||
| Area : | 280.3 km 2 (approx. 108 mi 2 ) of which 278.9 km 2 (approx. 108 mi 2 ) are land |
||
| Height : | 174 m | ||
| Area code : | +1 907 | ||
| FIPS : | 02-14880 | ||
| GNIS ID : | 1400404 | ||
Circle , also called Circle City , is a settlement in the northeast of the US state Alaska . Circle is located on the south bank of the Yukon River on the edge of the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuges and immediately downstream of the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve . Circle is the eastern end of the Steese Highway and is 260 km northeast of Fairbanks and about 120 km south of the Arctic Circle . The name arose from the erroneous assumption of the first settlers that the city is located on the Arctic Circle. Circle is also a checkpoint for the Yukon Quest sled dog race .
history
Gold was discovered along the Fortymile River in the mid-1880s. In 1893, two Creoles , Pitka and Sorresca, found additional gold deposits in the Circle Mining District on Birch Creek . The news drew many prospectors to the area. Circle was founded in 1893 as a supply center for goods transported across the Yukon to various remote gold digging camps . In the spring of 1894 gold was found on Mastodon Creek . Shortly thereafter there were also gold discoveries at Independence Creek , Miller Creek , Deadwood Creek and Boulder Creek , all within the Circle Mining District .
In 1896, before the Klondike gold rush , Circle was the largest gold prospecting town on the Yukon with around 700 residents. There was an Alaska Commercial Company store , eight to ten dance halls, an opera house, library, school, and church, as well as a newspaper, the Yukon Press , and several government officials.
The gold discoveries in the Klondike River (1897) and in Nome (1899) depopulated the city. Some prospectors stayed in the Birch Creek area. Circle became a small but stable local center supporting the gold prospectors in the Circle district.
population
- Aboriginal people : 76%;
- Whiteness: 14%;
- Unemployment: 24%;
- Population below the poverty line: 60.7%
climate
Circle has a continental subarctic climate , which is characterized by extreme temperature differences between summer and winter. The winter is long and hard, the summer short and warm. Temperatures in summer are in the range of 15–20 ° C and in winter down to −45 ° C. The average amount of rain is 165 mm, with an average of 110 cm of snow per year. The Yukon is ice-free here from mid-June to mid-October.
