The Kink is a manmade feature of the North Fork Fortymile River in remote eastern Alaska. It is a channel that was blasted through a rock ridge by gold miners in 1904, in the belief that bypassing a horseshoe-shaped meander in the river's natural flow would reveal gold deposits. The effort was unsuccessful.
The area includes the remnants of a small mining camp. The creation of the channel was a major engineering feat of the time, given the remote location and harsh climate (conditions that continue to apply today).[2]