Goodpaster River Watershed
“When looking at the location of rivers and the amount of streamflow in rivers, the key concept is the river's "watershed.” What is a watershed? Easy, if you are standing on the ground right now, look down. You're standing, and everyone is standing, in a watershed.”
— USGS.GOV
The Goodpaster River
The Goodpaster River is a 91-mile (146 km) major tributary of the Tanana River in Alaska. Its name in the Middle Tanana dialect of the Lower Tanana language is Jiiz Cheeg. Goodpaster River is a stream 6.6 miles from Big Delta in the Southeast Fairbanks Census Area.
The Goodpaster River Valley preserves a glacial record of the Yukon-Tanana upland. There, records of at least three older glaciations are found, the oldest estimated to be Late Tertiary.
The stream was called Goodpaster River by Lieutenant Allen "in honor of the Goodpaster family of Kentucky." Alternate names for this stream include North Fork Goodpaster River and Volkmar River.
Natives
The area of Goodpaster River and Big Delta, Delta River (incl. Delta Junction and Deltana) is the homeland of the Delta-Goodpaster or Big Delta-Goodpaster band of the Middle Tanana of the Tanana Athabaskans. The Goodpaster River is a natural break of the Tanana Athabaskan language area - separating the Tanacross and Upper Tanana languages from others living farther downriver.
Fishing
Catch and release king salmon fishing only is allowed from the mouth of the river to a marker 25 miles (40 km) upstream. The Goodpaster is accessible only by boat; launch points are at the Tanana River near Delta Junction or Clearwater Lake).
Mining
The Pogo mine is in the Goodpaster River Valley. Prior to the creation of the Pogo mine, the Goodpaster district created a few thousand ounces of gold via placer mining and a few hundred from load mining. Today, the Pogo mine produces around 400,000 ounces of gold annually.