The Tanana Valley is a lowland region in central

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., ...

in the United States, on the north side of the

Alaska Range The Alaska Range is a relatively narrow, 600-mile-long (950 km) mountain range in the southcentral region of the U.S. state of Alaska, from Lake Clark at its southwest endSources differ as to the exact delineation of the Alaska Range. ThBoar ...

, where 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) ...

emerges from the mountains. Traditional inhabitants of the valley 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 ...

Alaskan Athabaskans The Alaskan Athabascans, Alaskan Athabascans, Alaskan AthapascansWilliam Simeone, ''A History of Alaskan Athapaskans'', 1982, Alaska Historical Commission or Dena (russian: атабаски Аляски, атапаски Аляски) are Alaska ...

Climate

The region experiences great extremes of temperature during the year. During the winter months, the air is prone to

stratification Stratification may refer to: Mathematics * Stratification (mathematics), any consistent assignment of numbers to predicate symbols * Data stratification in statistics Earth sciences * Stable and unstable stratification * Stratification, or st ...

due to temperature inversions, leading to thick fogs. During the summer, the surrounding plains are generally boglike, and include much

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

and many

pingo Pingos are intrapermafrost ice-cored hills, high and in diameter. They are typically conical in shape and grow and persist only in permafrost environments, such as the Arctic and subarctic. A pingo is a periglacial landform, which is defin ...

Communities

The Tanana Valley is the most populated area of Alaska north of the Alaska Range. Its largest city is

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 ...

. Other communities include: *

College A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

Chena Hot Springs Chena Hot Springs is an unincorporated area, unincorporated community and spa town, hot spring resort in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States, 56.5 miles northeast of Fairbanks, Alaska, ...

Eielson AFB Eielson Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located approximately 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Fairbanks, Alaska and just southeast of Moose Creek, Alaska. It was established in 1943 as Mile 26 Satellite Field and redes ...

Ester In chemistry, an ester is a compound derived from an oxoacid (organic or inorganic) in which at least one hydroxyl group () is replaced by an alkoxy group (), as in the substitution reaction of a carboxylic acid and an alcohol. Glycerides ar ...

Fort Wainwright Fort Wainwright is a United States Army installation in Fairbanks, Alaska. Fort Wainwright is part of the Fairbanks North Star Borough and the coterminous Fairbanks Metropolitan Statistical Area. The installation is managed by U.S. Army Garrison ...

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

Manley Hot Springs Manley Hot Springs (''Too Naaleł Denh '' in Koyukon) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2020 census the population was 169, up from 89 in 2010. Geography Manley Hot Springs is locat ...

* Nenana *

North Pole The North Pole, also known as the Geographic North Pole or Terrestrial North Pole, is the point in the Northern Hemisphere where the Earth's axis of rotation meets its surface. It is called the True North Pole to distinguish from the Mag ...

* Tok * Two Rivers * Pleasant Valley *

Salcha Salcha ( Tanana: ''Soł Chaget'', Tanacross: ''Saagescheeg'') is a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is part of the Fairbanks, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 1,0 ...

Archaeology

According to James Q. Jacobs, Tanana Valley has the earliest evidence of human occupation in Alaska.

"At least three distinct lithic complexes appear in the Alaskan archaeological record at approximately the same time, between 12,060 and 11,660 B.P. The earliest firm evidence of human occupation is in the Tanana Valley in Alaska. At the Broken Mammoth, Swan Point, Mead, and Healy Lake, Alaska sites, the oldest dates range between 12,060 BP and 11,410. These sites contain cultural remains considered ancestral to today's Alaskan Native inhabitants. The oldest stratified sites in the Nenana Valley region date to from 11,820 to 11,010 BP. The Mesa complex in northern Alaska dates to 11,660 BP."

More recently, Tanana Valley sites have been dated to

pre-Clovis The Clovis culture is a prehistoric Paleoamerican culture, named for distinct stone and bone tools found in close association with Pleistocene fauna, particularly two mammoths, at Blackwater Locality No. 1 near Clovis, New Mexico, in 1936 a ...

period, or 13,000–14,000 cal yr BP.Tanana River Valley Archaeology circa 14,000 to 9000 B.P.
Charles E. Holmes. ''Arctic Anthropology''. Vol. 38, No. 2, Between Two Worlds: Late Pleistocene Cultural and Technological Diversity in Eastern Beringia (2001), pp. 154–170

Sites

The

Broken Mammoth Broken Mammoth, Alaska is an archeological site located in the Tanana River Valley, Alaska, in the United States. The site was occupied approximately 11,000 B.P. to 12,000 B.P. making this one of the oldest known sites in Alaska. Charles E. Holmes ...

site, the Swan Point Archaeological Site, and the Mead Archaeological Site are the earliest dated sites in Alaska. They are located along the Tanana River.

Notes

External links