Flat

History

Prospectors John Beaton and W.A. Dikeman discovered gold on Otter Creek on December 25, 1908. News of the discovery spread slowly, but some miners arrived in the summer of 1909 and built a small camp they called Flat City. More gold was discovered on nearby Flat Creek and more miners arrived in 1910. Beaton, Peter Miscovich, Lars Ostnes, and David Strandberg were prominent early arrivals who mined successfully long after the initial boomtown faded. By 1914, the community had grown to about 6,000 people, complete with an elementary school, a telephone system, two stores, a hotel, restaurant, pool hall, laundry and jail. However, a fire in 1924 caused the majority of the town to burn. By 1930, the population had declined to 124. No plat was filed for Flat, and the town site rests on mining claims, so the existence of Flat may contravene the law, but the U.S. Post Office acknowledged the community and served its few residents with an office until the year 2000. Between 1986 and 2000, the primary year-round residents were a family of five who worked together to maintain the area in the winter for mining in the summer. In July 1933, pioneering aviator Wiley Post undertook the first solo flight around the world. On July 20, en route to Fairbanks from a stop in Khabarovsk, Siberia, Post nosed over his high-wing, single-engine Lockheed Vega, the Winnie Mae, in Flat. Local residents helped him right the aircraft. The only damage was a broken propeller. A replacement propeller was brought to Flat by pioneer Alaska flier Joe Crosson and the airplane was repaired by John Miscovich. Post continued to Fairbanks, then on to Edmonton and New York, completing his solo flight around the world in under 8 days. 50 years later, Miscovich constructed a monument to commemorate…

Geography

Flat is located at (62.454135, -158.008284), 7 miles southeast of Iditarod. According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of , all of which of is land and none of it is covered by water.

Most recent

• M 2.5 — 2024-10-05
  43 km WSW of Takotna, Alaska
• M 3.9 — 2024-04-22
  37 km ESE of Holy Cross, Alaska
• M 2.9 — 2020-04-21
  54 km SW of Takotna, Alaska
• M 2.5 — 2020-01-18
  46 km SSW of Takotna, Alaska
• M 2.5 — 2019-12-24
  34 km N of Aniak, Alaska
• M 3 — 2019-10-16
  44 km SSW of Takotna, Alaska