Ophir, Alaska

Last updated

Ophir
Unincorporated area
Landing Fields - Alaska - Ophir - NARA - 68158984 (cropped).jpg
Ophir in 1942
USA Alaska location map.svg
Red pog.svg
Ophir
Location within the state of Alaska
Coordinates: 63°08′41″N156°31′10″W / 63.14472°N 156.51944°W / 63.14472; -156.51944
Country United States
State Alaska
Census area Yukon-Koyukuk
Government
   State senator Lyman Hoffman (D)
   State rep. Bryce Edgmon (D)
Time zone UTC-9 (Alaska (AKST))
  Summer (DST) UTC-8 (AKDT)

Ophir is an unincorporated area located in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska.

Contents

It was named by miners after the wealthy land of Ophir mentioned in the Old Testament. The area was the site of a gold rush in 1906. Ophir reached a peak population of 122 in 1910.

Ophir is now abandoned, but serves as a checkpoint in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. An airport with a single gravel runway exists at the village, built prior to 1949. It is currently in disuse and unmaintained.

There are a number of creeks near Ophir, all on the west bank of the Innoko, where gold placers were located starting about 1906. Yankee Creek is the closest to the source of the river, then Ganes, Little and Spruce Creeks, all above Ophir Creek. The original Iditarod trail ran above Ganes Creek in the summer, down the Innoko valley in the winter; the current race trail goes through the old townsite, which was destroyed in a brush fire started by a camper in the 1970s, and is a rest stop.

Mining still goes on at Ganes and Little Creeks, and probably at Ophir Creek (2006). Further downriver, on the east side, there were mining operations at Folger, Cripple, Bear and Colorado Creeks. Bear Creek and Colorado still are actively mined (2006). Mining of tailings was underway at Cripple in 2010.

There were at least eight mining operations near Ophir in 1949, including two dredges, but $35 gold winnowed them down to none by about 1955. Ophir's population was (an estimated) 18 in 1960. [1] There was sporadic mining after that, with new operations starting in the 1970s.

Demographics

Historical population
CensusPop.Note
1910 122
1920 22−82.0%
1930 19−13.6%
1940 84342.1%
1950 68−19.0%
U.S. Decennial Census [2]

Ophir first reported on the 1910 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It continued to report until 1950. Although Donald J. Orth 1967 U.S. Geological Survey (Professional) Paper (Report No. 567) [3] reported an estimated population of 18 in 1960, the census did not report an official separate figure that year or in any census since.

Geography

Ophir is located at 63°08′41″N156°31′10″W / 63.14472°N 156.51944°W / 63.14472; -156.51944 . [4]

Ophir is located on the west bank of the Innoko River in western Alaska, 48 km (30 mi) northwest of McGrath, at the mouth of Ophir Creek, which was mined for many years by Gust Utilla.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cripple Creek, Colorado</span> City in Colorado, United States

Cripple Creek is a statutory city that is the county seat of Teller County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 1,155 at the 2020 United States Census. Cripple Creek is a former gold mining camp located 20 miles (32 km) southwest of Colorado Springs near the base of Pikes Peak. The Cripple Creek Historic District, which received National Historic Landmark status in 1961, includes part or all of the city and the surrounding area. The city is now a part of the Colorado Springs, CO Metropolitan Statistical Area and the Front Range Urban Corridor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jefferson County, Colorado</span> County in Colorado, United States

Jefferson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Colorado. As of the 2020 census, the population was 582,910, making it the fourth-most populous county in Colorado. The county seat is Golden, and the most populous city's Lakewood.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aniak, Alaska</span> City in Alaska, United States

Aniak is a city in the Bethel Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. At the 2010 census the population was 501, down from 572 in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Willow, Alaska</span> CDP in Alaska, United States

Willow is a census-designated place (CDP) in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located 26 miles northwest from Wasilla along the George Parks Highway, it is part of the Anchorage, Alaska Metropolitan Statistical Area. At the 2020 census the population was 2,196, up from 2,102 in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elim, Alaska</span> City in Alaska, United States

Elim is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 330, up from 313 in 2000.

Golovin is a city in Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 156, up from 144 in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flat, Alaska</span> CDP in Alaska, United States

Flat is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the CDP was 0, down from 4 residents in 2000. Its post office closed in January 2004. Summer residents visited less and none remained by 2014. As of 2023, few buildings are inhabitable with hundreds of collapsed ruins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">McGrath, Alaska</span> City in Alaska, United States

McGrath is a city and village on the Kuskokwim River in Alaska, United States. The population was 301 at the 2020 census. Despite its small population, the village is an important transportation and economic hub for the area.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ruby, Alaska</span> City in Alaska, United States

Ruby is an incorporated town in central western Alaska, situated on the south bank of the Yukon River at the northwesternmost tip of the Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge. It is accessible only by boat or air. A formerly sizeable gold-mining and lumbering town servicing the region, at the 2010 census the population was just 166, with only a general store and post office remaining as businesses, down from 188 in 2000.

Shageluk is a city in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 83, down from 129 in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor, Colorado</span> City in Colorado, United States

The City of Victor is a Statutory City in Teller County, Colorado, United States. Gold was discovered in Victor in the late 19th century, an omen of the future of the town. With Cripple Creek, the mining district became the second largest gold mining district in the country and realized approximately $10 billion of mined gold in 2010 dollars. It reached its peak around the turn of the century when there were about 18,000 residents in the town. Depleted ore in mines, labor strife and the exodus of miners during World War I caused a steep decline in the city's economy, from which it has never recovered. The population was 379 at the 2020 census. There is a resumed mining effort on Battle Mountain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iditarod, Alaska</span> Ghost town in the State of Alaska, United States

Iditarod is an abandoned town in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is presently located within the boundaries of the Flat Census Designated Place, which has no residents as of 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iditarod Trail</span> Long-distance trail

The Iditarod Trail, also known historically as the Seward-to-Nome Trail, is a thousand-plus mile (1,600 km) historic and contemporary trail system in the US state of Alaska. The trail began as a composite of trails established by Alaskan native peoples. Its route crossed several mountain ranges and valleys and passed through numerous historical settlements en route from Seward to Nome. The discovery of gold around Nome brought thousands of people over this route beginning in 1908. Roadhouses for people and dog barns sprang up every 20 or so miles. By 1918 World War I and the lack of 'gold fever' resulted in far less travel. The trail might have been forgotten except for the 1925 diphtheria outbreak in Nome. In one of the final great feats of dog sleds, twenty drivers and teams carried the life-saving serum 674 miles (1,085 km) in 127 hours. Today, the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race serves to commemorate the part the trail and its dog sleds played in the development of Alaska, and the route and a series of connecting trails have been designated Iditarod National Historic Trail.

Council is an abandoned townsite in the Nome Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. It has a population of zero as of the 2000 and 2010 U.S. Censuses.

Gold mining in Alaska, a state of the United States, has been a major industry and impetus for exploration and settlement since a few years after the United States acquired the territory in 1867 from the Russian Empire. Russian explorers discovered placer gold in the Kenai River in 1848, but no gold was produced. Gold mining started in 1870 from placers southeast of Juneau, Alaska.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chatanika, Alaska</span> Unincorporated community in the state of Alaska, United States

Chatanika is a small unincorporated community located in the Fairbanks North Star Borough, Alaska, United States, north-northeast of the city of Fairbanks. The community runs along an approximately 20-mile (32 km) stretch of the Steese Highway, the majority of which sees the highway paralleled by the Chatanika River. The community consists of sparsely scattered residential subdivisions, several roadside businesses, a boat launch where the Steese Highway crosses the Chatanika River, relics of past gold mining operations in the area and the Poker Flat Research Range operated by the Geophysical Institute of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wasilla, Alaska</span> City in Alaska, United States

The City of Wasilla (Dena'ina: Benteh) is a city in Matanuska-Susitna Borough, United States and the fourth-largest city in Alaska. It is located on the northern point of Cook Inlet in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley of the southcentral part of the state. The city's population was 9,054 at the 2020 census, up from 7,831 in 2010. Wasilla is the largest city in the borough and a part of the Anchorage metropolitan area, which had an estimated population of 398,328 in 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine</span>

The Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mine, formerly and historically the Cresson Mine, is an active gold mine located near the town of Victor, in the Cripple Creek mining district in the US state of Colorado. The richest gold mine in Colorado history, it is the only remaining significant producer of gold in the state, and produced 322,000 troy ounces of gold in 2019, and reported 3.45 million troy ounces of Proven and Probable Reserves as at December 31, 2019. It was owned and operated by AngloGold Ashanti through its subsidiary, the Cripple Creek & Victor Gold Mining Company (CC&V), until 2015, when it sold the mine to Newmont Mining Corporation.

<i>Gold Rush</i> (TV series) American reality television series

Gold Rush is a reality television series that airs on Discovery and its affiliates worldwide. The series follows the placer gold mining efforts of various family-run mining companies, mostly in the Klondike region of Dawson City, Yukon, Canada, as well as in the U.S. state of Alaska. In its 12th season as of early 2021, prior seasons also included mining efforts in South America and western North America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Beaton (miner)</span> American miner

John Beaton was a gold miner and businessman whose discovery of gold in Flat, Alaska, began the Iditarod Gold Rush.

References

  1. World Book Encyclopedia (1960). volume A, pg 244.
  2. "U.S. Decennial Census". Census.gov. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  3. "Geological Survey Professional Paper". 1949.
  4. "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. February 12, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.