 Until 1971, Fort Yukon held the all-time lowest temperature record for Alaska and the United States at , and it still holds the record for the lowest mean monthly temperature when the notoriously cold month of December 1917 had an average daily temperature of and the minimum averaged .The city is among the best places in the world for observing the Aurora Borealis.Fort Yukon first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village of 109 residents.