Anchorage Daily News

MENTASTA LAKE

POPULATION: 114 (2006)

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. 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.