Salcha, AK

Salcha is a Fairbanks North Star Borough census-designated place about 40 miles south of Fairbanks on the Richardson Highway, next to the Salcha and Tanana rivers. The name first appeared in U.S. Geological Survey records in 1898 as Salchaket, from a Tanana phrase meaning ‘the mouth of Salcha.’ The Richardson Highway crosses the lower Salcha near the community, making the river both the place-name’s origin and the local geographic cue. The Salcha River State Recreation Site sits nearby, while the Tanana opens the broader valley. The local shorthand is river mouth, Richardson Highway, Fairbanks south, and Interior Alaska.