Loading map...

1952 Map of Kwiguk

Name: 1952 Topographic Map of Kwiguk
Creator: U.S. Geological Survey
Published: 1972
License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/

USGS Topo · Published 1972

About this map

The Yukon River divides into a sprawling network of distributaries as it reaches the Bering Sea in this 1952 study. This era captures the river-centered life of the delta before modern infrastructure reshaped regional transport, with a heavy reliance on seasonal waterways and a winter trail system. Settlements like Emmonak, Kwiguk, and Alakanuk are established at critical junctions where the main flow splits into the Kwanak Pass and Kwikluak Pass.

Upriver, the landscape transitions from the marshy lowlands of Head of Passes toward the rising Andreafsky Hills. This map serves as an excellent record of early 1950s habitation, showing several seasonal or small-scale sites including Fish Village, Johnnys Village, and Old Andreafsky near St Marys PD. Local travel is dictated by the complex sloughs, such as Kawanak Slough and Arovirchak Slough, which provided the primary means of movement between the scattered fishing and trapping communities of the lower Yukon.