A history of Coldfoot,
then and now
Postcards, papers and photographs of Coldfoot from public archives, woven together by decade. Neighbors fill in the gaps.
The story so far
from Wikipedia & the U.S. CensusColdfoot is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 34 at the 2020 census. It is said that the name was derived from travelers getting "cold feet" about making the 240-some-mile journey north to Deadhorse. Coldfoot primarily serves as a truck stop on the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. North of Coldfoot, there are no services for 240 miles (400 km), until Deadhorse. It has a restaurant and a small number of overnight accommodations (converted pipeline construction camp quarters). Bus tours along the highway typically take two days, with passengers spending the night in Coldfoot. The BLM, USFWS, and NPS jointl…
Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population grew from 10 to 34 (+240%).
Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Coldfoot yet — the old photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.
Intro from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Population and housing: U.S. Census Bureau.
Timeline
built from the dates on the items belowFinish Coldfoot’s story
Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.
4 of 10 decades since 1900 have photos 🔁Retake an old viewColdfoot, the Koyukuk Mining Camp, 1908: stand where they stood+15 📦Share a family photoSign in to add one+10Coldfoot, decade by decade
1960s
1990s
Then & now
No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as Coldfoot, the Koyukuk Mining Camp (1908) and it appears here side by side.
🔁 Retake this view · +15Stories next door
nearby towns’ historyFrom Wikimedia Commons (6). Images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.