Delta Junction ( uk, Делта-Джанкшен, Delta Dzhankshen) is a city in the

Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska Southeast Fairbanks Census Area is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census, the population was 6,808, down from 7,029 in 2010. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat. Its lar ...

, United States. As of the 2010 census, the population was 958, up from 840 in 2000. The 2018 estimate was down to 931. The city is located a short distance south of the confluence of the

Delta River The Delta River is an tributary of the Tanana River in the U.S. state of Alaska. Its name in the Ahtna language is ''Saas Na’ ''. Fed by the Tangle Lakes of the Alaska Range, the river flows north to meet the larger river near Big Delta ...

with the

Tanana River The Tanana River (Lower Tanana: Tth'eetoo', Upper Tanana: ''Tth’iitu’ Niign'') is a tributary of the Yukon River in the U.S. state of Alaska. According to linguist and anthropologist William Bright, the name is from the Koyukon (Athabaskan) ...

, which is at

Big Delta Big Delta is a census-designated place (CDP) in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 591 at the 2010 census, down from 749 in 2000. Big Delta is at the confluence of the Delta River and the Tanana River and g ...

. It is about south of

Fairbanks Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the po ...

. Native inhabitants are

Tanana Athabaskans The Tanana Athabaskans, Tanana Athabascans or Tanana Athapaskans are an Alaskan Athabaskan peoples of the Athabaskan-speaking ethnolinguistic group. They are the original inhabitants of the Tanana River (in Tanana languages , literally 'str ...

History

For at least 10,000 years,

Athabascan Athabaskan (also spelled ''Athabascan'', ''Athapaskan'' or ''Athapascan'', and also known as Dene) is a large family of indigenous languages of North America, located in western North America in three areal language groups: Northern, Pacific Co ...

indigenous peoples have inhabited portions of the interior of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. Early inhabitants survived by hunting and fishing. The early history of non-native settlement in the area occurred at the river crossing at Big Delta and is found at the entry,

Big Delta, Alaska Big Delta is a census-designated place (CDP) in Southeast Fairbanks Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 591 at the 2010 census, down from 749 in 2000. Big Delta is at the confluence of the Delta River and the Tanana River and g ...

. In 1904, the town first served as a telegraph station. In 1928, a herd of 23

bison Bison are large bovines in the genus ''Bison'' (Greek: "wild ox" (bison)) within the tribe Bovini. Two extant and numerous extinct species are recognised. Of the two surviving species, the American bison, ''B. bison'', found only in North Ame ...

were brought from the

National Bison Range The Bison Range (BR) is a nature reserve on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana established for the conservation of American bison. Formerly called the National Bison Range, the size of the bison herd at the BR is 350 adult bison ...

Montana Montana () is a state in the Mountain West division of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota and South Dakota to the east, Wyoming to the south, and the Canadian provinces of Alberta, British Columbi ...

to an area south of Big Delta to provide an additional game species for hunters. Buffalo Center, a small community near the center of present-day Delta Junction, was named because of their presence, especially during the winter months. The huge animals were troublesome, and sometimes made landings dangerous at nearby

Allen Army Airfield Allen Army Airfield is a public and military use airport serving Fort Greely and located three miles (5 km) south of the central business district of Delta Junction, a city in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area of the U.S. state of Alaska. ...

. During World War II, the United States aided the Soviet Union against Germany by sending airplanes and supplies authorized by the

Lend-lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

Act to the Soviet Union through Alaska into the Russian Far East. The

Alaska Highway