Hyder
Prince of Wales-Hyder (CA) · USGS GNIS name record 1422711
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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 Hyder ↗Dataset snapshot 2026-09-02 · Source record edited 06/07/2022 · NAD83 · approximate source location
USGS description & history
population 32, at mouth of Salmon River, on W bank of Portland Canal, Coast Mts.
This mining community, the esternmost village in Alaska, was established in 1907 and named "Portland City" because of its location. When the post office was established in 1915, the U. S. Post Office Dept. rejected this name. The village was named Hyder for Frederick Hyder, a Canadian mining engineer who was brought to Portland City in 1914 to examine some claims. "Among the claims examined by him was the Big Missouri, belonging to Daniel Lindeborg. His report on this was so favorable that Lindeborg later proposed his name * * * for the post office." The population in 1945 was 254, mostly Indians (Colby, 1945, p. 124); in 1962 it was about 30 (Alaska Sportsman, 1962, No. 12, p. 26). According to US@C&GS the town is now practically deserted (1962, p. 28).
Source notes may describe earlier conditions.Source files & checksums
SHA-256 20c96936a3ba430b345eed1c7395b6aab52875aac8e1e2905fab37b388cab381
SHA-256 45ad8d56b3bb4990ad8105cdda15ee7d2f07afd6941afe75b783f29b02723697
SHA-256 919fac887628b8547ec1b24fae319522a9481a56909c3914d1e0a2b56783147c