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Circle (also called Circle City; Gwichʼin: ) is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 104, up from 100 in 2000. Circle is northeast of Fairbanks at the end of the Steese Highway. Circle was named by miners in the late 19th century who believed that the town was on the Arctic Circle, but the Arctic Circle is about north of Circle. Every February, Circle City hosts a checkpoint for the long-distance Yukon Quest sled dog race. Many of the events in John McPhee's 1976 non-fiction book Coming into the Country occur in Circle. In Truman Capote's non-fiction book In Cold Blood, Perry Edward Smith mentions spending time with his father in Circle City. [edit] History
Circle was established in 1893 when gold was discovered in Birch Creek; it served as an unloading point for supplies shipped up the Yukon River from the Bering Sea. The goods were sent overland to gold mining camps. In 1896, before the Klondike Gold Rush, Circle was the largest mining town on the Yukon River and had a population of 700. It had a store, a few dance halls, an opera house, a library, a school, a hospital, an American Episcopal church, a newspaper, a mill, and several federal officials: United States commissioner, marshal, customs inspector, tax collector and a postmaster. Circle lost much of its population after gold discoveries in the Klondike in 1897, and Nome in 1899. A few miners stayed near Circle. Mining in the area has continued into the 21st century. Most of the residents of Circle today are Athabascan. [edit] Research Tips
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