Area History

Subsistence and Fur Trapping
Native Americans within the Yukon Flats at the time of European contact included several bands of Athabascan Indians, highly mobile hunters dependent on fisheries resources and big game, primarily moose and caribou. Non-Native people first came to the area because of an exceptional abundance of furbearers. The Hudson’s Bay Company established Fort Yukon, centrally located within what is now the refuge, in 1847. After the U. S. purchased Alaska from Russia in 1867, Hudson’s Bay Company was forced to relocate to Canadian soil, and the Alaska Commercial Company assumed operations in Fort Yukon.

Discovery of Gold
Gold was discovered on Birch Creek in 1893, and the community of Circle rapidly expanded to a population of more than 1,000 people during the boom that followed. Although the gold rush era ended, fur trapping continued to expand, and by the 1920s Fort Yukon had become the most important fur center in Alaska.

Proposed Hydroelectric Project
The international importance of the Yukon Flats to migratory waterfowl wasn’t fully recognized until after World War II. During the late 1950s, a major hydroelectric project was proposed for the Yukon River at Rampart Canyon. That dam, if constructed, would have flooded the entire Yukon Flats and created a lake larger than Lake Erie. Environmental organizations, hunters, Alaska Native groups, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service took a firm stand against this proposed project, and eventually it died. Official protection by the federal government began in 1978

Last updated: July 22, 2008

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