Ruby is an incorporated town in central western Alaska, situated on the south bank of the Yukon River at the northwesternmost tip of the Nowitna National Wildlife Refuge. It is accessible only by boat or air. A formerly sizeable gold-mining and lumbering town servicing the region, at the 2010 census the population was just 166, with only a general store and post office remaining as businesses, down from 188 in 2000.
Ruby in the 1940s
Riverboats on the Yukon River at Ruby during the town's heyday. ca. 1910
Northern Commercial Co.
Communication towers at Ruby
The Yukon River is a major watercourse of northwestern North America. From its source in British Columbia, it flows through Canada's territory of Yukon. The lower half of the river continues westward through the U.S. state of Alaska. The river is 3,190 kilometres (1,980 mi) long and empties into the Bering Sea at the Yukon–Kuskokwim Delta. The average flow is 6,400–7,000 m3/s (230,000–250,000 cu ft/s). The total drainage area is 833,000 km2 (321,500 sq mi), of which 323,800 km2 (125,000 sq mi) lies in Canada. The total area is more than 25% larger than Texas or Alberta.
Canoeing the Yukon River
The bridge across the Yukon River at Carmacks on the Klondike Highway
The E. L. Patton Yukon River Bridge carries the Dalton Highway over the Yukon north of Fairbanks.
Crossing the Lake Laberge by canoe
