Bettles

History

The original village was founded a mile southwest of the junction of the John & Koyukuk Rivers in the late 1890s during the Alaska Gold Rush and was named for Gordon C. Bettles, a newspaper man, Montana Silver prospector, and trader who established the trading post and community in 1898. A post office was established in 1901 and continued intermittently until 1956. Residents began relocating east to Evansville, where the airstrip that serves the community today was built in World War II and is now used for commercial air service. The Hickel Highway was used to transport equipment and supplies to the North Slope for oil exploration, and to build the Dalton Highway, which is now used as a truck route to the oilfields. The old village was largely abandoned and the New Bettles was carved out of Evansville and was incorporated in 1985. File:FMIB 41408 Bettles Trading Post on the Koyukuk River.jpeg|Bettles Trading Post on the Koyukuk River at Old Bettles, Alaska File:Bettles and the Koyukuk River.jpg|Bettles and the Koyukuk River at (New) Bettles, Alaska, 2003 File:Bettles community from air photography.jpg|Bettles community from air, (New) Bettles, Alaska, c2013

Geography

Bettles is located on the southeast bank of the Koyukuk River at (66.913419, −151.522374). The city is on the former Hickel Highway, that now connects to the Dalton Highway as a winter ice road only and crosses the Jim River. Bettles is north of the Arctic Circle, just south of the Brooks Range. The city is also served by a gravel airstrip built by the military. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land. As is typical of the Alaska Interior, Bettles experiences a subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc) with very long, frigid winters and short, warm summers, and is located in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 1, indicating the coldest temperature of the year is typically at or below . Temperatures usually remain consistently below freezing from late October to late March, and the bulk of the year's snow occurs from October to April, with generally light accumulations in May and September; the average annual snowfall stands at . In summer, temperatures reach on 37 days and on 6.4, with an average of 1 night not falling below . The threat of frost usually begins in late August, but sometimes it can happen during the first half of that month. A majority of the annual precipitation of occurs during summer as well. Extreme temperatures have ranged from , recorded on January 4, 1975, up to , set on July 6, 1986. ;Notes:

Race & ethnicity

Most-observed species

• Common Redpoll

  Acanthis flammea (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  48
• Gray Jay

  Perisoreus canadensis (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  44
• Swainson's Thrush

  Catharus ustulatus (Nuttall, 1840) · Aves
  39
• White-crowned Sparrow

  Zonotrichia leucophrys (J.R.Forster, 1772) · Aves
  38
• Spotted Sandpiper

  Actitis macularius (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  36
• Bank Swallow

  Riparia riparia (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  35
• Dark-eyed Junco

  Junco hyemalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  35
• Yellow-rumped Warbler

  Setophaga coronata (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  33

Most recent

• M 2.8 — 2026-04-19
  81 km NNW of Alatna, Alaska
• M 2.5 — 2026-03-30
  35 km NW of Alatna, Alaska
• M 2.7 — 2026-02-15
  71 km SE of New Allakaket, Alaska
• M 3.1 — 2026-01-27
  54 km SE of Bettles, Alaska
• M 2.5 — 2026-01-18
  68 km NNW of Rampart, Alaska
• M 2.5 — 2024-06-13
  48 km SE of Bettles, Alaska