The Arctic village that holds Alaska's record-breaking heat and cold

Countries & Cities · Published 16 October 2026 · Updated 25 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Fort Yukon sits on a geographic edge where the Arctic Circle meets the Yukon River. It is a place of extremes, holding both the highest temperature ever recorded in Alaska and the record for the lowest mean monthly temperature in the United States.

Located at the confluence of the Yukon and Porcupine Rivers, Fort Yukon (Gwichyaa Zheh) has been inhabited for thousands of years by indigenous cultures, primarily the Gwich’in people. The name Gwich’yaa Zhee translates to "House on the Flats." The settlement's modern history began in 1847 when Alexander Hunter Murray of the Hudson's Bay Company established a trading post there. Although the area was then part of Russian America, the post remained a fur trade hub until American traders expelled the company in 1869 following the Alaska Purchase. The village has served as a crucible for extreme weather and human migration. During the winter of 1897–1898, it hosted 200 prospectors fleeing supply shortages in Dawson City during the Klondike Gold Rush. While the settlement suffered from infectious diseases and a 1949 flood, it also became a site of scientific and military significance, hosting a U.S. Air Force base in the 1950s and a sounding rocket launch in 1984 that reached an altitude of 310 miles. Fort Yukon's climate is defined by its "strongly continental subarctic" nature. In 1915, it recorded Alaska's highest temperature of 100 °F. Conversely, it held the record for the lowest temperature in the U.S. until 1971, reaching −78 °F in 1934. The village is still mostly a rural Gwich’in settlement, situated where the Arctic Circle moves north roughly 14.5 metres annually because of wobbles in the planet's axis.

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