page_title: Steese Highway
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Steese Highway / History
caption_attribution_description: The Steese Highway is more than half gravel.
context_page_description: The Steese Highway is a highway in the Interior region of the U.S. state of Alaska that extends 161 miles from Fairbanks to Circle, a town on the Yukon River about 50 miles south of the Arctic Circle. The highway was completed in 1927 and is named for U.S. Army General James G. Steese, a former president of the Alaska Road Commission. It is paved for about the first 81 miles and around the town of Central it turns to dirt and gravel. Much of it is narrow and winding.
context_section_description: The highway and surrounding region has a long association with gold mining. It was built to service the Circle Mining District, which was very productive in the 1890s, before the discovery of gold in the Klondike. Both historic sites, such as Felix Pedro's 1902 gold discovery which resulted in the founding of Fairbanks, and the preserved gold camp at Chatanika, and active dredging operations line the road.
caption: Much of the highway passes through rugged unpopulated areas.
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