Bettles, AK

Bettles is a Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area city south of Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve. Gordon Bettles opened a trading post during the late-1890s Koyukuk gold rush, and the settlement still functions as an air gateway into the Brooks Range. A ranger station, air taxis, lodges, a store, and a post office support trips into the backcountry. There is no road to Bettles; a winter road connects it to the Dalton Highway when snow cover and river ice permit travel. Aviation and seasonal access shape the city's daily movement.