Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
Most of Fort Yukon was built recently: 0.4% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1986. Its Register listings are the Old Mission House and the Sourdough Inn. Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1952 on, and the census since 1880.
Fort Yukon dates its founding to 1847 (Wikidata). The census first counted it in 1880.
Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.
Peaked at 701 in 1960; 428 people lived here in 2020.
14 censuses, 1880–2020.
U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Fort Yukon’s Wikipedia page.
Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.
In the archiveFort Yukon in June 1867 - Dall
In the archiveFMIB 44028 View of the interior of the old Fort Yukon stockade, nearly all of this part h…
In the archivePost Office, Custom house and tent encampment at Fort Yukon, Alaska, circa 1898
On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological SurveyFrom Wikipedia’s history of Fort Yukon.
This area north of the Arctic Circle was occupied for thousands of years by cultures of indigenous people and in historic times by the Gwich’in people. Gwichʼyaa Zhee means "House on the Flats" in Gwichʼin.
Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
3 decades in the archive, from the 1860s to the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.
1867Fort Yukon in June 1867 - Dall1885FMIB 44028 View of the interior of the old Fort Yukon…
1885FMIB 44029 Portrait of Senatee, the chief of the Fort…c. 1898Post Office, Custom house and tent encampment at Fort…
c. 1899Group of indigenous children at Fort Yukon, Alaska, c…
c. 1899Indigenous group in Fort Yukon, Alaska, ca. 1899 - DP…The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Fort Yukon.
1952Fort Yukon C-3 sheet · 1:63,360U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Fort Yukon.
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.
Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Fort Yukon’s page.
Retake this view · +15The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.
National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.
Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
In 1847, according to Wikidata. Fort Yukon’s post office opened in 1898, and the census of 1880 counted 109 people here.
Two places: the Old Mission House (listed 1978) and the Sourdough Inn (1997).
What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.
Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →
From Wikimedia Commons (6), the National Register of Historic Places (2), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia), the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.
