Alaska's cities
Circle, Alaska
Town supplied miners along Yukon River
Alaska.com
Circle sits on the south bank of the Yukon River at the edge of the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge and just downstream from the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve. Circle is at the eastern end of the Steese Highway, 160 miles northeast of Fairbanks. The town is about 75 miles south of the Arctic Circle.
Circle, which has about 100 residents, is a predominantly Athabaskan community with several non-Native families. Tourists and recreational enthusiasts come through seasonally on the road from Fairbanks. Some people live in Circle only during summer months.
Employers include the school (attended by about 25 students), clinic, village corporation, trading post and the post office. A few residents hold commercial fishing permits. Almost all are involved in subsistence fishing and hunting. Trapping and making of handicrafts contribute to family incomes.
History
Circle (also known as Circle City) was established in 1893 as a supply point for goods shipped up the Yukon River and then overland to the gold mining camps. Early miners believed the town was located on the Arctic Circle, hence its name.
By 1896, before the Klondike gold rush, Circle was the largest mining town on the Yukon, with a population of 700. It boasted an Alaska Commercial Co. store, eight or 10 dance halls, an opera house, library, school, hospital and Episcopal Church. It had a newspaper, the Yukon Press, and a number of residential U.S. government officials.
Gold discoveries in the Klondike (1897) and Nome (1899) virtually emptied the town. A few hearty miners stayed on in the Birch Creek area, and Circle became a small, stable community that supplied miners working the nearby Mastodon, Mammoth, Deadwood and Circle creeks. Mining continues to this day.
Source: Alaska Department of Community and Economic Development
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