Bethel
Bethel (CA) · USGS GNIS name record 1398908
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USGS GNIS Populated Place names in all 50 states and DC. Features in the historical extract or explicitly named historical are excluded; duplicate decision records with identical identities and coordinates are collapsed. GNIS points identify names, not legal or neighborhood boundaries, current occupancy, school attendance or a statistical population. Nearby Census places and tracts remain separately named geographies. Name completeness and currency vary; this is not a claim to include every locally used neighborhood name.
Original USGS record for Bethel ↗Dataset snapshot 2026-09-02 · Source record edited 05/25/2010 · NAD83 · approximate source location
USGS description & history
population 1,258, on right bank of Kuskokwim River, 90 mi. SW of Aniak and 83 mi. E of Nelson I., Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.
Bethel was originally the site of an Eskimo village and trading post of the Alaska Commercial Company. Listed as "Mumtrekhlogamute" with 41 people by Ivan Petroff in the 10th Census, in 1880. The name is reported to mean "Smokehouse people" because here a peculiar house for smoking fish was erected . Alaska to locate a site for a mission, which they placed at the village of Mumtrekhlogamute. The mission was established a year later by Weinland and J. H. Kilbuck. The name given to the mission is derived from the biblical passage "And God said unto Jacob, Arise, and go up to Bethel, and dwell there; and make there an altar unto God. (Genesis 35:1). The scriptural Bethel was 22 mi. N of Jerusalem and means "house of God" in Hebrew. The Alaskan Bethel had a population of 33 in 1890, 110 in 1910, 221 in 1920, 278 in 1930, 376 in 1940, and 651 in 1950. The Bethel post office was established in 1905.
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SHA-256 20c96936a3ba430b345eed1c7395b6aab52875aac8e1e2905fab37b388cab381
SHA-256 45ad8d56b3bb4990ad8105cdda15ee7d2f07afd6941afe75b783f29b02723697
SHA-256 919fac887628b8547ec1b24fae319522a9481a56909c3914d1e0a2b56783147c