47 Fun Facts About Kobuk Valley National Park

Kobuk Valley National Park lies just north of which line on the map?

The Arctic Circle runs a few dozen miles south of the park, so on the winter solstice the sun clears the horizon there for only about an hour and a half.

Which bird reaches Kobuk Valley each spring from Antarctica, the longest migration of any bird?

Arctic terns fly from one end of the Earth to the other and back, so they see two summers a year and more daylight than any other creature.

Which two kinds of bear live in Kobuk Valley National Park?

Black and grizzly bears both roam this inland valley, but it has no polar bears despite the latitude: they stay with the sea ice and the coast.

NASA has funded study of the Great Kobuk Dunes as an analog for what?

NASA funded fieldwork treating the Great Kobuk Dunes as an analog for polar sand seas on Mars: both are cold dune fields shaped by wind, snow and frost.

What lies beneath Kobuk Valley's soil and keeps snowmelt from draining away?

Permafrost, ground that stays frozen all year, acts as a barrier, so each summer the trapped meltwater gathers in ponds and wetlands across the valley floor.

The caribou crossing Kobuk Valley each spring head for calving grounds north of which mountain range?

The Brooks Range stands between the herd's winter country and its calving grounds, so the caribou funnel through the park twice a year, north in spring and south in fall.

Kobuk Valley National Park covers slightly more ground than which entire US state?

Delaware is a little smaller than the park's 1.75 million acres, yet in all that space the park has no roads, no marked trails and no campgrounds.

With no roads leading to Kobuk Valley National Park, how do most visitors get there?

By chartered small plane: air taxis on wheels can land right on the sand dunes, while float planes set down on the Kobuk River.

Which town outside Kobuk Valley National Park hosts its headquarters and visitor center?

Kotzebue sits well outside the park because the park itself has no public facilities at all: no visitor center, no campground and no entrance gate.

Kobuk Valley is managed with which two other units as the Western Arctic National Parklands?

Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve share Kobuk Valley's staff and visitor center, so one stop outside all three serves travelers bound for any of them.

Which protected area is Kobuk Valley's nearest neighbor to the east?

Gates of the Arctic owes its name to explorer Bob Marshall, who in 1929 saw two peaks facing each other across the Koyukuk River's North Fork and named the gap between them.

Which Kobuk River tributary inside the park is a designated National Wild River?

The Salmon River won its protection partly because the caribou herd crosses it on both its spring and fall migrations; it runs its whole course inside the park.

Kobuk Valley's northern mountains are named for Spencer Baird, the secretary of which institution?

The Smithsonian hired Baird in 1850, and he turned up with two railroad boxcars of his own specimens; he ran it as secretary from 1878 until his death.

Which law let the president protect Kobuk Valley as a national monument in 1978 without waiting for Congress?

The Antiquities Act of 1906 lets a president set aside federal land by proclamation, and it was used here because the bill to create Alaska's new parks had stalled in Congress.

Which 1980 law turned Kobuk Valley from a national monument into a national park?

The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act created most of the state's parklands in one stroke and more than doubled the size of the National Park System.

What does the Kobuk's Native name, Kuuvak, mean?

Big river is the meaning of Kuuvak, which outsiders spelled Kowuk, Kowak and Kubuk before settling on Kobuk, so 'Kobuk River' amounts to saying 'big river river'.

In which direction does the Kobuk River flow to the sea?

West, toward the coast: the valley's east-west line long made it a travel corridor between the Bering Strait shore and interior Alaska.

Which big silver predator do trophy anglers travel to the Kobuk River to catch?

Sheefish, the largest of the whitefishes at up to 60 pounds, winter in brackish bays and then run far up the Kobuk to spawn in the fall.

What do families along the Kobuk River head out to pick in late summer to last through the winter?

Berries are the last harvest of summer: families net salmon and whitefish from camps along the river, then pick greens and berries before caribou season.

What is the National Historic Landmark archaeological site at a major caribou crossing on the Kobuk?

Onion Portage, named for the wild onions on its banks, was nearly passed over: its excavator dug a few house pits in 1941 and left, then came back twenty years later to find one of the oldest sites in the Arctic.

What makes Kobuk Valley's famous archaeological site so valuable for dating Arctic cultures?

Campsites stacked in buried layers give a ready-made timeline: nine cultures lie one above another, oldest at the bottom, so each can be dated against the rest.

What did archaeologist J. Louis Giddings collect along the Kobuk in 1940 to help date ancient sites?

Tree-ring samples were his specialty: he had trained under A. E. Douglass, the founder of tree-ring dating, and was the first to use the method in the Arctic.

Who owns the private holdings inside Kobuk Valley National Park that visitors are asked to respect?

Alaska Native corporations were granted land under a 1971 settlement, years before the park existed, so some of their holdings now lie inside its boundary.

Which Native people have long made their home along the Kobuk River?

Inupiat hunters still meet the caribou at the river crossings each fall as their ancestors did, though motorboats and rifles have replaced qayaqs and spears.

The Arctic Small Tool tradition, whose people once hunted in the Kobuk Valley, is named for tiny blades of what?

Chipped stone blades this small were not used alone: their makers set them into shafts of bone or antler to build arrows and spears.

What did Native people tell stampeders arriving for the 1898 Kobuk gold rush?

Local people warned the 1898 stampeders that the gold reports were a scam, so more than half sailed straight home; the 800 or so who went upriver found almost nothing.

Which green stone, Alaska's state gem, comes from the hills of the upper Kobuk valley?

Jade from the mountains above the Kobuk was one of the strongest materials at hand, so people shaped it into knives, tools and beads and carried it along the river.

Which president first protected Kobuk Valley as a national monument on December 1, 1978?

Jimmy Carter proclaimed a whole set of Alaska monuments that day, then signed the law making Kobuk Valley a national park in December 1980, weeks after losing his bid for re-election.

With no national preserve lands, Kobuk Valley National Park allows which kind of hunting?

Only local subsistence take is allowed, because the law that created the park promised nearby rural residents they could go on hunting and fishing for food as before.

Which salmon species makes the main run up the Kobuk River?

Chum salmon, also known as dog salmon, come up from the sea to spawn in the valley, and the run helps carry river families and their dogs through the winter.

From June 3 to July 9, what happens to the sun at Kobuk Valley National Park?

It never sets for those five weeks, so the Park Service suggests packing a dark eye mask: inside a tent it can be 'noontime bright at 2 am'.

Which needle-leaved tree joins aspen and birch in the woods slowly covering Kobuk Valley's old dunes?

Spruce arrives last in a set order: grasses and wild rye pin the loose sand down, mosses and shrubs follow, and only then can trees take root.

Kobuk Valley lies in the transition zone between which two ecosystems?

Boreal forest and tundra meet here because the valley sits at the northern limit of trees: woods fill the sheltered lowlands while the slopes above stay bare.

The Park Service jokes that June and July are 'the best months' for which Kobuk Valley residents?

Mosquitoes are so thick in early summer that, as the park puts it, birds are 'fat and happy' while people are 'less enthusiastic'; by August there are far fewer.

The sound that receives the Kobuk River was explored in 1816 by a naval expedition sailing for which empire?

The Russian Empire sent the brig Rurik north to look for a sea passage around America, and the sound its commander found still carries his name.

Besides caribou, which member of the deer family lives in Kobuk Valley National Park?

Moose stay through the Arctic winter, sheltering in the river valleys, while most of the park's birds and many of its other animals leave or hibernate.

How did archaeologist J. Louis Giddings first travel down the Kobuk River in 1940?

On a raft he built himself, with neither axe nor hatchet, after walking for six days across unmapped country to reach the river.

When the caribou herd reaches the Kobuk River on its fall migration, how do the animals reach the far bank?

They swim across, and hunters in boats hold back until the animals are halfway over, so the rest of the herd keeps coming.

Alaska has eight national parks, Kobuk Valley among them; which state alone has more?

California has nine national parks to Alaska's eight, but Alaska has the giants: its Wrangell-St. Elias is the largest park in the whole system.

Under the Köppen system, what climate type does Kobuk Valley have?

Subarctic means the coldest month stays below freezing while at least one month averages above 10 °C, the summer warmth that trees need to grow.

In spring 1899, many Kobuk River stampeders sailed off to a new gold strike near which future city?

Nome's gold drew them away, but latecomers from the Kobuk found the best ground taken by claim jumpers, and some ended up working the beach sands instead.

Why does the Park Service warn that June can be too early to float the Kobuk River?

It may still be frozen: ice covers the Kobuk for about half the year, gives way in a late-spring surge, and can start forming again by mid-September.

Which largest land-dwelling member of the weasel family roams Kobuk Valley National Park?

Wolverines are built for this country: they stay active all year, and their big clawed paws carry them easily over deep snow and steep slopes.

Which bird, Alaska's state bird, stays active in Kobuk Valley all winter while most others fly south?

Ptarmigan turn white for the snow season and live almost entirely on willow buds and twigs, so they can stay when nearly every other bird has gone.

The Kobuk locoweed, a wildflower found only on Kobuk Valley's dunes, belongs to which plant family?

Pea family: its blossoms have the classic pea-flower shape, and because it lives only on these dunes, it would likely die out if vegetation finished reclaiming them.

What ground cover, the caribou's winter staple, carpets Kobuk Valley's woodland?

Lichen, often called reindeer moss, is what caribou switch to each September after a summer of willow leaves, sedges and mushrooms.

What crushed the rock that became the sand of Kobuk Valley's great dunes?

Glaciers in the surrounding mountains ground the rock beneath them to a fine sand, and the wind then carried it into the ice-free valley and piled it into dunes.