Tanana
Tanana is a mapped river in the YearMaps hydrographic index. River courses organise settlement, agriculture and frontier-making more durably than any political boundary, and this reach is indexed against the dams, lakes and cities within its catchment.
- Feature Class
- River
- Coordinates
- 64.25°, -146.66°
About Tanana
The Tanana River (Lower Tanana: Tth'eetoo', Upper Tanana: Tth’iitu’ Niign) is a 584-mile (940 km) 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) tene no, tenene, literally "trail river." Early explorer and naturalist to Alaska William Dall translated the name as "River of Mountains."
The river's headwaters are located at the confluence of the Chisana and Nabesna rivers just north of Northway in eastern Alaska. The Tanana flows in a northwest direction from near the border with the Yukon Territory, and laterally along the northern slope of the Alaska Range, roughly paralleled by the Alaska Highway. In central Alaska, it emerges into a lowland marsh region known as the Tanana Valley and passes south of the city of Fairbanks.
In the marsh regions it is joined by several large tributaries, including the Nenana (near the city of Nenana) and the Kantishna. It passes the village of Manley Hot Springs and empties into the Yukon near the town of Tanana.
Ice on the river accumulates each winter to an average maximum thickness of 43 inches (110 cm) at Nenana.
Encyclopedic summary adapted from Wikipedia: Tanana River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tanana in Depth
History
Human habitation of the Yukon basin, including the Tanana watershed, began more than 12,000 years ago. Several sites in the watershed have produced evidence of occupation by Paleo-Arctic people. Later residents include people of the Tanana tribe, which has had a presence in the region for 1,200 years.
In the summer of 1885, Lieutenant Henry Tureman Allen of the U.S. Army undertook the first recorded exploration of the Tanana River. In 1883, Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka and his party had entered the Yukon watershed by way of Canada and floated to the mouth of the Yukon. Allen's goal was to find an all-Alaska route to the Yukon River. He and his men ascended the Copper River, crossed into Tanana River drainage, and descended the Tanana to the Yukon and down it to the mouth.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Tanana River (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Tanana: Key Facts
| Length | 940 km |
|---|---|
| Average discharge | 1 m³/s |
| Drainage basin | 113,959 km² |
| Mouth | Yukon River |
| Drainage system | Tanana River basin |
| Tributaries | Johnson River, Delta River, Nenana River, Kantishna River, Cosna River, Chitanana River, Salcha River, Chena River |
Facts from Wikidata Q393769 (CC0).
Major River Dossiers
Hand-written studies of the great river systems of history.
Connected Reaches
Nearby watercourses in the same drainage network.
Water Bodies in the Catchment
Settlements Along the Reach
Hydraulic Infrastructure Nearby
Surrounding Terrain
Tanana: Quick Answers
- Where is Tanana?
- Tanana is located in United States, at 64.2534° N, 146.6553° W.
- Are there dams on the Tanana?
- No dam on the Tanana is recorded in the YearMaps dam index, which covers major structures only.