Chena, Alaska Ghost Town

County:
Zip Code:
Latitude / Longitude: 64° 47′ 44 N, 147° 57′ 6 W
Elevation:
Time Zone: Alaska (AKST) (UTC-9)
Established:
Disestablished:
Comments: The area is now part of the outskirts of Fairbanks. The town was fairly prosperous for a time, and even had its own newspaper, the Tanana Miner, which later was purchased by the Fairbanks Daily News (now the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner), running concurrently with it for a time. Other businesses included two hotels, two general stores, a bakery, a laundry, and two restaurants. By 1910, Chena had a police department, a public school, churches, and a fire department. By 1915, however, the population had dropped to 50. With the death of the town’s last business owner, grocer Harry Beldon
Remains: In 1920, the population had dropped to only 18. The town gradually faded away, resurging in modern times as a suburb of Fairbanks.
Current Status: By 1910 the population had fallen to 138
Remarks: Chena was a small town in interior Alaska near the confluence of the Chena and Tanana rivers whose heyday was in the first two decades of the 20th century, with a peak population of about 400 in 1907.

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