Yukon - Charley Rivers National Preserve - Natural Features

The two most striking features of Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve are its two namesakes, the Yukon and Charley Rivers.

They Yukon River traverses the preserve from east to west for approximately 145 miles. Historically the river served as a transportation corridor for indigenous peoples, and later, into the nineteenth century for sternwheelers carrying the hopeful goldseekers first to the Klondike, then down river to Nome, and later throughout interior Alaska. Heading at approximately 4,000 feet elevation, the Charley River empties into the Yukon at only 700 feet above sea level.

The preserve encompasses not only the entire 106 river miles of the Charley, but also its entire 1.1 million acre watershed. The preserve is bounded on the south by the Mertie Mountains with the Ogilvie Mountains in Canada to the northeast. Today, the villages of Eagle and Circle lie just outside the preserve boundaries on either end of the Yukon. Both communities figured prominently in early Alaska history as focuses of major gold mining activities. In fact, the Circle City Rush predates the Klondike Gold Rush by nearly five years and at one time, Circle City was known as the "Paris of the North" and held the prestige of being the largest log cabin town in the world.