Unalakleet, AK

Unalakleet is a city on Norton Sound at the mouth of the Unalakleet River, 148 miles southeast of Nome and 395 miles northwest of Alaska’s largest city. The 2020 census counted 765 residents. The name means “from the southern side,” and the community has long been a trade center at the Norton Sound end of the Unalakleet–Kaltag Portage, an important winter route to the Yukon River. Archaeologists have dated house remains along the beach ridge to roughly 200 B.C. through A.D. 300.

ATTRBureau of Land Management Alaska / CC BY 2.0

A Russian-American Company post arrived in the 1830s, the Army Signal Corps built a long telegraph line through Unalakleet in 1901, and the city incorporated in 1974. Today the airport moves cargo and air taxis through the region, while salmon, king crab, caribou, seal, and other foods remain part of Unaligmiut life and the local economy. The Unalakleet River and Bering coast shape the city’s working map. Unalakleet is a western Alaska hub whose old trade route, air connections, commercial fishing, and subsistence traditions all meet at one river mouth.