Emergency Airmail

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Alaska emergency airmail covers.
The covers are very rare rates -- although the covers were flown by airmail, the first class surface rate was paid. The reason was that the postmaster permitted Alaskan mails, which were normally transported by dog sled, to be transported by air (at the surface rate) when dog sled mail was not possible.

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The town of Ruby was established in 1911 as the result of a gold rush. Gold was first discovered at the current townsite in 1906 on Ruby Creek. That discovery brought more prospectors to the area. In 1910 word leaked out about a gold strike on Long Creek, 30 miles south of Ruby, and a stampede was on. Discoveries on other nearby creeks followed and Ruby became the supply point for the mines.

At its peak the population was near 3000. By 1918 The town was in decline. Many of the men had left to fight in World War I and several of the towns business people and their families were lost in the sinking of the ship Sophia.

A fire in 1929 destroyed much of the business district and a flood in 1931 took out what was left of buildings on the river front.

After World War II the population of the community had left. Natives from the village of Kokrines moved in to take advantage of the abandoned homes. There are currently less than 200 people living in Ruby.

Local residents nicknamed the town "The Gem of the Yukon", because it is located along the Yukon River and also the name resembles that of a ruby gemstone.