Kobuk
Northwest Arctic · USGS GNIS name record 1413362
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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 Kobuk ↗Dataset snapshot 2026-09-02 · Source record edited 02/15/2011 · NAD83 · approximate source location
USGS description & history
population 54, on right bank of Kobuk River 7 mi. NE of Shungnak, Kotzebue-Kobuk Low.
Village established about 1899 as a supply point for the mining activities in the Cosmos Hills to the north. It was then called Shungnak. Because the village was the location of a trading post, school, and Friends mission, it became primarily an Eskimo settlement by 1910. Due to river erosion the population of Shungnak decided to relocate at a new site called "Kochuk" about 10 miles downstream in the 1920's. The few families that remained behind, and some who returned, renamed the village "Kobuk." The Shungnak post office was established in 1903; the name was changed to Kobuk in 1928. Its population was 210 in 1910; 95 in 1920; 31 in 1939; and 38 in 1950.
Source notes may describe earlier conditions.Source files & checksums
SHA-256 20c96936a3ba430b345eed1c7395b6aab52875aac8e1e2905fab37b388cab381
SHA-256 45ad8d56b3bb4990ad8105cdda15ee7d2f07afd6941afe75b783f29b02723697
SHA-256 919fac887628b8547ec1b24fae319522a9481a56909c3914d1e0a2b56783147c