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The smoke from Interior fires forms a haze above the village of Fort Yukon and gives the evening light a dull red quality. And thanks to the midnight sun, that's a lot of light.

Fort Yukon sits on the northernmost reach of the Yukon River, about 145 miles northeast of Fairbanks. The location, jutting above the Arctic Circle, makes the community a minor attraction for tourists interested in another post-vacation talking point.

A welcome sign that greets these visitors in front of the airport's lone passenger terminal boasts of a population of 800, though it seemed sleepier than that on a recent weekend near the summer solstice. The town's most famous resident, U.S. Rep. Don Young, didn't appear to be at home. At the river a single fish wheel was in the water -- though it wasn't spinning -- while the rest remained dry on the bank as the salmon made their way upriver from the coast.

Fort Yukon has been a community for a long time, at least by Alaska standards. It was founded in 1847 as a Canadian outpost. There's a corner in the Hudson's Bay cemetery dedicated to this history.

"In memory of the people of the Hudson's Bay Company who died at or near Fort Yukon between the years 1840 and 1870," reads the plaque on a spalling concrete cross. "Many of them being pioneers and discoverers and explorers of various portions of the Yukon and Alaska. Erected by The Hudson's Bay Company 1923."

Contact Stephen Nowers at stephen(at)alaskadispatch.com.