River · United States
Tanana River
The Tanana is a big glacier river in the heart of Alaska. It flows north-west along the foot of the Alaska Range, passes south of the city of Fairbanks and joins the Yukon near the village of Tanana.
Picture credit: Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Diego Delso (CC BY-SA 4.0) · Wikimedia Commons
Where is Tanana River?
The river starts here: Confluence of the Chisana and Nabesna rivers near Northway Junction, Alaska.
It ends in the Yukon River near the village of Tanana, Alaska.
Countries on the river: the United States.
The story behind it
In summer, meltwater from the glaciers fills the Tanana with fine grey silt. The water turns cloudy and splits into many channels that keep shifting between gravel bars. By late summer the river can shrink to a shallow stream. Fairbanks, the biggest town in the Tanana valley, lies near its banks, and further downstream comes the small town of Nenana. In winter the river freezes, and at Nenana the ice can be about 110 centimetres thick. Since 1917 people there have been guessing the exact moment the ice breaks up in spring. A tripod stands on the ice, tied by a line to a clock in a tower on the bank. When the ice moves, the line snaps and the clock stops. Chinook, chum and coho salmon swim through the murky water, together with Arctic grayling and burbot. People have lived along the river for more than 12 000 years.
Questions children ask
How long is the Tanana River?
The Tanana is about 940 km long. Some sources give about 915 km, because the length varies with the way it is measured.
How does the ice guessing game at Nenana work?
People guess the day and minute when the ice on the Tanana will break up in spring. A line runs from a tripod on the ice to a clock on the bank, and when the ice moves the tripod, the line breaks and the clock stops.
Why is the Tanana important for the Yukon?
The Tanana brings almost 30 percent of all the water that flows in the Yukon River. Its glacier water is also full of silt and minerals.
Where these numbers come from
Every figure on this page was checked against public reference sources before publication. Where sources genuinely disagree, the text says so.
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