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Wiseman is a census-designated place (CDP) in Yukon-Koyukuk Census Area, Alaska, United States. The population was 14 at the 2010 census, down from 21 in 2000. As of 2018, the population is 13.
Wiseman is a small mining community along the Middle Fork Koyukuk River in the Brooks Range. It was founded by gold miners who abandoned the Slate Creek (later Coldfoot) settlement around 1908.
Robert Marshall, who became a prominent American forester, preservation activist, and a co-founder of The Wilderness Society, wrote the bestselling book, Arctic Village, about his 15-month stay in this frontier town around the year 1930. Marshall described Wiseman and the Koyukuk River area surrounding it, as "the happiest civilization of which I have knowledge." Marshall called Noel Wien's first flight there on 5 May 1925, "one of the great events in Koyukuk history."
The community is 3 miles (5 km) from the Dalton Highway, and it was not connected to the road until the early 1990s.
