Nenana River is located heads at Nenana Glacier, in Alaska Range, flows N to Tanana River at Nenana, Tanana Low. 230 kilometers long.
Originally named Cantwell River by Lieutenant Allen (1887, map), U.S.A., in 1885 for Lieutenant John C. Cantwell, of the Revenue-Cutter Service, who explored the Kobuk River region in 1884 and 1885. In 1898, W. J. Peters and A. H. Brooks, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), reported that the native name was "Tutlut," but Lieutenant J. C. Castner, U.S.A. (in Glenn and Abercrombie, 1899, p. 233), stated in 1898: "The largest, of twenty cabins, was opposite the mouth of the Nanana (Lieutenant Allen's Cantwell) River." The Tanana Indian name was spelled "Nenana" by Lieutenant Herron (Herron, 1901 p. 48). Local usage adopted the latter spelling. According to Father Julius Jette, S. J., the name "remains unexplained and seems as much a puzzle to them (the Indians) as it is to me."