Seward Peninsula

Geographical location

The Seward Peninsula (English Seward Peninsula ) is an approximately 320 km long and 145-225 km wide peninsula on the west coast of Alaska. It was named after William H. Seward, the politician who had the purchase of Alaska from Russia negotiated.

Geography

The peninsula separates the Chukchi Sea to the north and the Bering Sea in the south. The western tip of the peninsula, the Cape Prince of Wales, located in the Bering Strait and is just 83 km straight line from the Asian mainland. It is the point of the American continent, which is the closest Asian.

The northwestern coast of the peninsula is characterized by long, partially broken spits that from Cape Prince of Wales to Cape Espen Berg, the northern tip of the peninsula, extend. In the interior there are several mountain ranges of volcanic origin. In the Devil Mountains in the north are the biggest crater lakes in the world. They originated about 21,000 years ago by underground steam explosions. To the south lie from west to east, the York Mountains, Kigluaik Mountains, Bendeleben Mountains and Darby Mountains. The highest point of the peninsula is the 1437 meter high Mount Osborn in the Kigluaik Mountains.

North of Lake Kuzitrin there is an approximately 1000 to 2000 year old lava flow cooled off, the Lost Jim Lava Flow, which covers an area of 228 km ². On the peninsula is still volcanic activity observed, mainly in the form of hot springs.

The longest rivers of the peninsula are the Koyuk River and the Kuzitrin River. Both rivers originate near the Kuzitrin Lake, the Koyuk River drained to the southeast in the Norton Bay, the Kuzitrin River westward to the Imuruk Basin. Other important rivers are the Nome River and the Niukluk River in the south of the peninsula.

In the north of the peninsula lies the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.

Population

The Seward Peninsula is sparsely populated, the largest settlements are around 3800 inhabitants Nome and with about 600 inhabitants Shismaref. The natives of the peninsula are the approximately 7,500 people counted Inupiat.

History

During the last great Ice Age was today's Seward Peninsula part of Beringia, a land bridge between Siberia and Alaska, through which came the ancestors of the Native Americans to America. 1898 was found on the Seward Peninsula, near the city of Nome, gold, giving a brief economic boom triggered. Three railroads, the Seward Peninsular Railroad in Nome, the Golovin Bay Railway in the now-defunct gold mining town Council City and the Council City and Solomon River Railroad in Dickson were built, but closed after a few years back because the gold deposits were largely exhausted. The only paved roads of the peninsula were also expanded in the gold years of Nome.