Nenana /nɛˈnænə/ (Lower Tanana: Toghotili;[4] is a home rule city in the Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area of the Unorganized Borough in Interior Alaska.

Completed in 1923, the 700-foot-long (210 m) Mears Memorial Bridge was built over the Tanana River as part of the territory's railroad project connecting Anchorage and Fairbanks.

The town was first known by European Americans as Tortella, a transliteration of the Indian word Toghotthele, which means "mountain that parallels the river."

The Nenana people became accustomed to contact with Europeans, due to trading journeys to the Village of Tanana, where Russians bartered Western goods for furs from 1838.

Early American explorers and traders, such as Henry Tureman Allen, Arthur Harper and Bates, first entered the Tanana Valley in 1874 and 1885.

[5] Hudson Stuck, the Archdeacon of the Yukon, regularly visited the settlement, part of the 250,000 square-acre territory of the Interior he administered.

This railroad truss bridge, the longest in the United States and its territories when completed, gave Nenana a rail transportation link north to Fairbanks and south to Seward, Alaska.

Nenana was the starting point for the 1925 serum run to Nome, after diphtheria antitoxin had been transported by rail from Anchorage.

The federally recognized tribe in the community is the Nenana Native Association, who traditionally spoke the Lower Tanana language.

Under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971, they have rights of self-government and managing some of their traditional territory.

Entrants buy a ticket and pick a date in April or May and a time, to the closest minute, when they think the winter ice on the Tanana River will break up.

The competition is run as follows: a large striped tripod is placed on the frozen Tanana River and connected to a clock.

The winner is whoever comes closest to guessing the precise time when the ice beneath weakens to the point that the tripod moves and stops the clock.

Nenana has a transitional humid continental/subarctic climate (Köppen Dfb/Dfc) with long, cold and dry winters and warm summers with cool nights.

Refuse is collected by a private firm and hauled to the new Denali Borough regional landfill, located south of Anderson.

Nenana has a rural lifestyle but has good access to Fairbanks on the major north-south George Parks Highway.

The private sector economy is based on its role as the center of rail-to-river barge transportation for the Interior.

Crowley Marine is a major private employer, supplying villages along the Tanana and Yukon rivers each summer with cargo and fuel.

The City also attracts independent travelers with such attractions as the Alaska Railroad Museum, the Golden Railroad Spike Historic Park and Interpretive Center, the historical St. Mark's Episcopal Church (built in 1905), Iditarod dog kennels, and a replica of the sternwheeler Nenana.

A heritage center features displays of local culture and history, and is open during the summer tourist season from May to September.

Numerous Native and non-Native households rely on traditional subsistence foods, such as salmon, moose, caribou, bear, waterfowl and berries.

Taxes: Sales: 4%, Property: 12.0 mills, Special: None Nenana has air, river, road and railroad access.

The Nenana Port Authority operates the dry cargo loading and unloading facilities, dock, bulkhead, and warehouse.

Richard Arlen and Beverly Roberts played a mis-matched pair on a trek to Nenana to escape a village famine.

Season 1 Episode 20 of Molly of Denali, 'Welcome Home Balto' is centered on the antitoxin delivery and is set mainly in Nenana.