50 Fun Facts About Kobuk Valley National Park

Kobuk Valley National Park lies about 25 miles north of what line?

The sun never sets there for over a month in early summer and shows for only about an hour and a half on the winter solstice.

What surprising feature was the park created in 1980 to preserve, along with caribou migration routes?

The Great Kobuk Sand Dunes are the largest active Arctic dune field in North America.

How tall are the Great Kobuk Dunes?

Two smaller fields, the Little Kobuk and Hunt River dunes, lie nearby, all on the south side of the Kobuk River.

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

Glacial outwash and strong winds built the dunes after the Pleistocene ice retreated; forest and tundra have since buried most of the original 200,000 acres.

Roughly how much area do the park's active dune fields still cover?

Right after the glaciers retreated the dunes covered as much as 200,000 acres; most has since been hidden under vegetation.

Roughly how many caribou belong to the Western Arctic herd that migrates through the park?

They cross the Kobuk River twice a year between wintering and calving grounds, a crossing central to Inupiaq subsistence hunting.

Where does the caribou herd spend the summer calving season?

The wintering grounds lie south of the valley's lower southern range, so the herd's river crossing happens twice a year.

How big is Kobuk Valley National Park?

About 81,000 acres inside it belong to Native corporations and the state, and a large tract south of the river is designated wilderness.

How many designated trails and roads does the park have?

Visitors bring all their own gear for backcountry travel and arrive by chartered air taxi from Nome, Bettles or the headquarters town.

Which town on the Bering Sea coast, about 100 miles west, hosts the park's headquarters?

The Northwest Arctic Heritage Center there also serves Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve, run together as the Western Arctic National Parklands.

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

A single superintendent runs all three from the same building.

Which national park and preserve lies 32 miles east of Kobuk Valley?

Kobuk Valley sits between the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge and the Noatak National Preserve, over 75 river miles from the Chukchi Sea.

The park's northern boundary follows the crest of which range, the western end of the Brooks Range?

They were named for a 19th-century scientist; a lower range closes the ring to the south.

The park's northern range is named after Spencer Baird, secretary of which institution?

They cover about 5,600 square miles between the Kobuk and Noatak rivers, roughly 60 miles northeast of the headquarters town.

Which shorter range forms the southern rim of the Kobuk Valley?

The park boundary runs along its height of land, enclosing the valley in a ring with the Bairds to the north.

Which stretch of the Kobuk River lies inside the park?

Major tributaries like the Salmon and Hunt rivers are included too; the valley floor is mostly glacial drift.

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

It was first written down as Kowuk in 1850, and a Navy lieutenant later tried to rename it Putnam for a lost officer.

Roughly how long is the Kobuk River?

It rises in the Endicott Mountains, not in Walker Lake as commonly assumed, and empties into Hotham Inlet.

Which large predatory whitefish, prized in the Kobuk, spawns in the river's upper reaches each autumn?

Chinook, chum, pink and sockeye salmon, Arctic char, lake trout and three kinds of whitefish also swim the park's waters.

Human habitation in the Kobuk Valley is believed to go back at least how long?

The first arrivals were Paleo-Arctic hunters who took caribou at a river crossing; the valley was abandoned and resettled several times since.

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

Its deep layers hold nine cultural complexes from about 6500 BC to AD 1700 and anchor the cultural chronology of the Arctic.

How many cultural complexes are documented at the park's famous archaeological site?

They span roughly 6500 BC to AD 1700 at a site that has been a National Historic Landmark since 1978.

Which pioneering Arctic archaeologist identified Cape Krusenstern's great stratified site in 1940?

His cabin at the site is preserved by the Park Service; he also began the science of subarctic tree-ring dating along the Kobuk.

Which Native regional group holds the park's famous archaeological site as an inholding?

About 81,000 acres inside the park belong to Native corporations and the State of Alaska.

Which Native people live in the Kobuk valley, subsisting on its caribou and fish?

Their ancestors the Akunirmiut and Kuuvaum Kangiamirnuit left the valley in the mid-19th century when caribou declined; descendants are the Kuuvangmiit.

Arctic Small Tool people arrived in the valley some 4,000 years ago and departed roughly when?

The valley then stood empty until new people arrived around AD 1200, documented at the Ahteut site 25 miles downriver.

What did Native people tell the roughly 2,000 prospectors who arrived for the 1898 Kobuk River Stampede?

Only about 800 went upriver and found little or nothing; some 32 miners' camps from 1899-1900 have yet to be located.

Roughly how many prospectors' camps were set up in the park area during the brief gold rush of 1899-1900?

Surveys have found debris from the miners' boats but not the camps themselves.

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

He used the Antiquities Act while the Alaska lands bill was stuck in Congress; ANILCA followed on December 2, 1980.

Unlike many Alaska park units, Kobuk Valley has no national preserve; what does that mean for hunters?

A preserve designation would have opened it to sport hunting; the whole park is national park land.

Kobuk Valley was one of how many new Park Service units created by ANILCA in 1980?

Alaska now has eight national parks, second only to California's nine.

Between which dates does the sun never set over the park?

On the winter solstice it shows for only about 90 minutes, though long twilights stretch the light either side.

What is the average January low in the park?

Nights can drop to minus 50; summer averages about 65 and can hit 85, and snow can fall in any month.

The park lies in the transition zone between which two ecosystems?

Wolves, both bear species, lynx, wolverines and Dall sheep live there alongside the caribou and moose.

Which two seasonal ranger stations does the park operate along the Kobuk River?

One sits at the west end of the park and one at the east; there is no year-round staff inside the park.

The park's headquarters town is named after an explorer of which nationality who sought the Northwest Passage in 1818?

The explorer gave his name to the sound in which the town sits.

What does Qikiqtagruk, the Inupiaq name for the park's headquarters town, mean?

The town of about 3,100 has long been a trading hub where even people from the Russian Far East came to barter furs and seal oil.

Which Navy lieutenant explored the Kobuk in 1883-86 and proposed renaming it Putnam?

Cantwell of the Revenue Cutter Service explored it in 1884-85 too, spelling it Koowak; the name never stuck.

How far is it by river from the park to the Chukchi Sea?

The Kobuk enters its broad delta about 10 miles below Kiana and empties into Hotham Inlet.

How large is the Kobuk Valley Wilderness south of the river?

The Selawik Wilderness continues south of it inside the adjoining wildlife refuge.

Kobuk Valley is one of how many national parks in Alaska?

Only California, with nine, has more national parks than Alaska.

Under the Köppen system, what climate type does the park have?

Its coldest month averages below freezing while one to three months average above 10 °C, and snow can fall in any month of the year.

Besides Bettles and the headquarters town, which Seward Peninsula town has air taxis to the park?

Flights run year-round but depend on the weather, and visitors must stock up on supplies before they fly in.

What is the name of the building that serves as the park's headquarters?

The same building houses the offices for Cape Krusenstern National Monument and Noatak National Preserve.

Which body of water is commonly, but wrongly, assumed to be the source of the Kobuk River?

The true headwaters lie further east in the Endicott Mountains, and the river then drops through the Upper and Lower Kobuk canyons.

For roughly how long is the sun visible in the park on the winter solstice?

Long periods of twilight pad either side of it, and the aurora borealis is a regular winter sight when solar activity is high.

The Kobuk River empties into which arm of Kotzebue Sound?

When sea levels were lower the Noatak, Kobuk and Selawik rivers were joined; today each has its own lake-studded delta.

Oxytropis kobukensis, the pink Kobuk locoweed of the dunes, belongs to which plant family?

Its blossoms have the classic bean-flower shape, and caribou tracks crisscross the same dunes on their spring and autumn migrations.

The Great Kobuk and Little Kobuk dune fields are joined by a third named after which waterway?

All three lie on the south side of the Kobuk River and are leftovers of far larger fields formed from glacial outwash and strong winds.

Just after the Pleistocene glaciers retreated, the valley's dune fields covered up to how much?

Forest and tundra have since crept over most of that area, leaving the largest active Arctic dune field in North America.