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Nenana, AlaskaPhoto: Quintin Soloviev · CC BY 4.0
–Not graded
History · Nenana

Nenana’s post office opened in 1908, and 1 of its places is on the National Register

Most of Nenana was built recently: 3% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Its Register listing is the Nenana Depot. Below: 12 old photos and papers, maps from 1950 on, and the census since 1910.

1908first post office
1on the National Register
3%homes built before 1940
12old photos & papers
2famous people
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Nenana’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Nenana began

When was Nenana founded?

1908

The Nenana post office opened in 1908, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1921.

First census: 190 in 19102020 census: 358118 years
Founding year: the first Nenana post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1921.

What stands out about Nenana’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

Boom and bustPeaked at 634 in 1920; 358 people lived here in 2020.A town in old photos12 old photos, postcards and papers, 1900–1916.
★ What stands out · People over time

Nenana, census by census

0100200300400500600700192019401960198020002020Peak: 634

Peaked at 634 in 1920; 358 people lived here in 2020.

12 censuses, 1910–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Nenana’s Wikipedia page.

By decade

Nenana, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s–1910s12 items
Coal1900CoalDogs1900DogsNenana Indian Mission, Nenana, Alaska, circa 1907c. 1907Nenana Indian Mission, Nenana, Alaska, circa 1907A St. looking north1909A St. looking northView of Nenana, ca. 1912c. 1912View of Nenana, ca. 1912Log cabins showing garden with cabbage crop, Nenana, ca. 1914c. 1914Log cabins showing garden with cabbage crop, Nenana, …Potato fields in the town of Nenana, Alaska1914Potato fields in the town of Nenana, AlaskaChief Thomas and others in front of dwelling, Nenana, Alaska, between 1910 and 1920c. 1915Chief Thomas and others in front of dwelling, Nenana,…Native woman and two children from Nenana village, Alaska, circa 1915c. 1915Native woman and two children from Nenana village, Al…Nenana Village, Alaska, circa 1915c. 1915Nenana Village, Alaska, circa 1915Auction of lots at Nenana, Alaska, August 24, 19161916Auction of lots at Nenana, Alaska, August 24, 1916Land auction audience and auctioneer at Nenana with inset photograph of Harry E St George, the purchaser of the first l…1916Land auction audience and auctioneer at Nenana with i…
1920s–1990snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
The story so far

Nenana, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Nenana yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Nenana (Lower Tanana: Toghotili) is a home rule city in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area of the Unorganized Borough in Interior Alaska. Nenana developed as a Lower Tanana community at the confluence where the tributary Nenana River enters the Tanana. As of the 2020 census, Nenana had a population of 358. Completed in 1923, the 700-foot-long (210 m) Mears Memorial Bridge was built over the Tanana River as part of the territory's railroad project connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks.

Its first post office opened in 1908. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 378 to 358 (-5%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Nenana, 1900 to 1978

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1900In the archiveCoal
  3. 1908Post officeThe Nenana post office opens
  4. 1912In the archiveView of Nenana, ca. 1912
  5. 1920CensusPopulation peaks at 634
  6. 1929Born hereDon Wright is born here
  7. 1950On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  8. 1978Born hereErica Lord is born here
On the map

Nenana on the map in 1950

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Nenana.

Nenana on the 1950 USGS map1950Fairbanks C-5 sheet · 1:63,360

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Nenana.

Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Coal
Retake this viewCoal, 1900

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Nenana’s page.

Retake this view · +15
On the National Register

1 historic place in Nenana

The country’s official list of buildings and places worth saving.

place listed
1
National Historic Landmarks
0
none yet
historic buildings protected
1
each building in a district counts
first listed
1977
Nenana Depot
Nenana Depot
Buildings
Nenana DepotBuilding

National Park Service, National Register of Historic Places. Photos from Wikimedia Commons, credited on each place’s page.

Famous people

2 famous people were born in Nenana

Writers, athletes, leaders and more, ranked by how widely they’re known.

See all →
Don WrightAmerican politician · b. 1929
E
Erica LordDene (Northern Athabascan)/Iñupiaq interdiscipl… · b. 1978
Help out

Finish Nenana’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewCoal: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Nenana’s history

What year was Nenana founded?

The Nenana post office opened in 1908, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1921.

What is on the National Register in Nenana?

One place: the Nenana Depot (listed 1977).

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

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 (10), the Library of Congress (2), the National Register of Historic Places (1), 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.