Wiseman

Wiseman is a small mining community along the Middle Fork Koyukuk River in the Brooks Range, in northern Alaska. Gold miners founded it around 1908, after they left the Slate Creek settlement, which later became Coldfoot. Wiseman Creek runs through the middle of town. The census counted 12 full-time residents in 2022.

The village is 3 miles from the Dalton Highway, and it was not connected to the road until the early 1990s. The climate is subarctic. Summers are short and mild, with frequent rainy days and cool nights, and winters are long and severely cold. Average annual snowfall is about 82 inches.

Another small mining village, Nolan, on Nolan Creek to the north, survived into the 1970s. Wiseman itself first appeared in the 1930 census, and returned in 1940. It was counted again in 1990 and became a census-designated place in 2000.

Around 1930, Robert Marshall, a forester who went on to co-found The Wilderness Society, spent 15 months here and wrote the bestselling book Arctic Village. He called the Koyukuk River area "the happiest civilization of which I have knowledge". He also described Noel Wien's first flight to the region on May 5, 1925 as one of the great events in Koyukuk history. The village appears in the film Wise Men of Alaska, made in 2000, and has been featured in the series Life Below Zero.