Coldfoot, Alaska Webcam

Category: Panoramic

Coldfoot is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area in the U.S. state of Alaska. The population was 13 at the 2000 census.

Coldfoot primarily serves as a truck stop on the Dalton Highway from Fairbanks to Prudhoe Bay. North of Coldfoot, there are no services for 240 miles, until Deadhorse.

The town was originally a mining camp named Slate Creek, and around 1900 got its present name when prospectors going up the nearby Koyukuk River would get “cold feet” and turn around. In 1902 Coldfoot had two roadhouses, two stores, seven saloons, and a gambling house.

The Coldfoot truck stop was founded by Iditarod champion Dick Mackey who started his operation by selling hamburgers out of a converted school bus. Truckers helped build the existing truck stop and cafe.

Coldfoot has been featured on the third and fourth seasons of Ice Road Truckers, a Canadian reality television series airing on the History Channel. The show, which dramatizes trucking on the Dalton Highway, often features truckers transporting equipment to the oil companies located in or around the Prudhoe Bay area. Coldfoot Airport, on the west side of the Dalton Highway, consists of a 4,000-foot gravel strip.