Editing Eagle, Alaska (section)

==History==
For thousands of years prior to Europeans arriving in Alaska, the Eagle area was home to many [[indigenous peoples]], including the [[Han (North American people)|Han]].

The first known American-built{{clarify|reason=Weren't the Han and other indigenous Americans?|date=November 2024}} structure in Eagle was a log [[trading post]] called "Belle Isle", erected around 1874. Subsequently, in the late 1800s, Eagle became a supply and trading center for miners working the upper [[Yukon River]] and its tributaries. By the year 1898, Eagle's population had exceeded 1,700 persons; many newcomers journeyed to the area with word of the [[Klondike Gold Rush]].

In 1901, Eagle became the first incorporated city of the [[Alaska Interior]]. It was named for the many eagles that nested on nearby Eagle Bluff. A [[United States Army]] camp, [[Fort Egbert]], was built at Eagle in 1900. A telegraph line between Eagle and [[Valdez, Alaska|Valdez]] was completed in 1903. In 1905, [[Roald Amundsen]] arrived in Eagle and telegraphed the news of the [[Northwest Passage]] to the rest of the world.

The ensuing gold rushes in [[Nome, Alaska|Nome]] and [[Fairbanks, Alaska|Fairbanks]] eventually lured people away from Eagle. In 1903, Judge [[James Wickersham]] moved the Third Division court from Eagle to Fairbanks. By 1910, Eagle's population had declined to its present-day level, below 200&nbsp;people. Fort Egbert was abandoned in 1911.

Present-day Eagle is home to (mostly) people of European descent; nearby [[Eagle Village, Alaska|Eagle Village]] has a small population that is about 50&nbsp;percent [[Han (North American people)|Han]].

The town enjoyed some notoriety, as the setting of [[John McPhee]]'s book ''[[Coming into the Country]]'', first published in 1977 and becoming quite popular. Many of the buildings from the Gold Rush years are preserved as part of the [[Eagle Historic District]], a [[National Historic Landmark]] district.
[[File:YukonRiverAtEagle.jpg|thumb|left|650px|Yukon River at Eagle, 2006]]

The Eagle area also is one of the locales featured on the [[National Geographic Channel]] series ''[[Life Below Zero]]''.
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