Anchorage Daily News

POPULATION: 109 (2007)

LOCATION: On the west side of Mentasta Pass, 6 miles off the Tok-Slana Cutoff of the Glenn Highway, 38 miles southwest of Tok Junction.

DESCRIPTION: An old, primarily Athabascan community whose population, nearly three-fourths Alaska Native, depends heavily on subsistence hunting, fishing, trapping and gathering. Cash employment is limited and seasonal. The 2000 U.S. Census indicated that the median household income was $17,344, per capita income was $11,274 and 35 percent of the residents were living below the official U.S. poverty level. There is one school, attended by about 35 students.

HISTORY: The area was apparently the best-known Native migration route across the Alaska Range, and early village settlements have been located at various sites around the lake. The families who now live here came from Nabesna, Suslota, Slana and other nearby villages. The U.S. Army Signal Corps put a telegraph station at Mentasta Pass in 1902. A post office was established in 1947 but discontinued in 1951.

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