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Dillingham ( ), also known as Curyung , is a city in Dillingham Census Area, Alaska, United States. Incorporated in 1963, it is an important commercial fishing port on Nushagak Bay. As of the 2020 census, the population of the city was 2,249, down from 2,329 in 2010.

Geography

Dillingham is on Nushagak Bay at the mouth of the Nushagak River, an inlet of Bristol Bay, an arm of the Bering Sea in the North Pacific, in southwestern Alaska. It is located at (59.046751, -158.508665).

According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of . of it is land, and of it (7.64%) is water. This may change as the City of Dillingham will likely petition the State of Alaska to increase the size of its boundaries to include most of Nushagak Bay and Wood River, to gain revenue from the Nushagak District and Wood River Special Harvest Area commercial salmon fisheries.

Dillingham is located in the 37th district of the Alaska House of Representatives, and is represented by Independent Bryce Edgmon, who serves as Speaker for the Alaska House of Representatives.

Dillingham is not connected to the statewide road system, and the only way to reach the city is by airplane or boat. The Dillingham Airport located near the center of the city limits has a runway and is served by several flights daily through Alaska Airlines (seasonal - summer) and PenAir (year-round). A paved road connects Dillingham with Aleknagik and the Wood-Tikchik State Park. Many residents live along the Aleknagik Lake Road and roads connecting the city's central business district with Wood River and Kanakanak.

Natural resources

Dillingham is the regional hub of the rich Bristol Bay salmon fishing district. Bristol Bay supports the world's largest runs of wild sockeye salmon and returns of other species of Pacific salmon. The Nushagak district produces an average of 6.4 million salmon annually and as many as 12.4 million salmon in 2006. Harvests are closely regulated by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to ensure adequate spawning escapement to ensure long term sustainability and provide for subsistence harvests by residents of upriver villages.

Commercial fishing remains an important part of the Dillingham economy, but prices paid for salmon vary due to international competition, especially from fish farming operations in Chile, Norway, Canada and elsewhere. Prices paid Bristol Bay fishermen for fresh sockeye salmon peaked at $2.11 per pound in 1988 but fell to just $0.42 per pound in 2001. Prices have since rebounded due to techniques to improve fish quality and enhanced marketing efforts, and were back up to $2.35 per pound in 2013, rising to $3.02 in 2016 when reporting ceased. Processed fresh sockeye were priced commercially at $6.43 per pound in 2019.

Dillingham is an important gateway to many sport fishing lodges and eco-tourism opportunities. Many of these are focused on the adjacent Wood-Tikchik State Park, the largest state park in the United States, known for its great fishing opportunities. Dillingham is also the headquarters for nearby Togiak National Wildlife Refuge, home to walruses, seals, terrestrial mammals, migratory birds, and fish, as well as one of the largest wild herring fisheries in the world. Togiak National Wildlife Refuge was established to conserve fish and wildlife populations and habitats in their natural diversity, including salmon, to fulfill international treaty obligations, to provide for continued subsistence use, and to ensure necessary water quality and quantity.

In 2010, the City of Dillingham voted to re-authorize its position opposing the proposed Pebble Mine, a large gold-copper-molybdenum prospect located at the headwaters of Bristol Bay. The resolution explains that the value of the fishery totals about $100 million a year that the commercial wild salmon fishery has been the backbone of livelihoods for more than 100 years that the future of the renewable resource industry depends on its freshwater stream reputation that local residents depend on subsistence activities which in turn depend on Bristol Bay's pristine freshwater streams and habitat and that Pebble threatens to destroy the last great wild salmon fishery on the planet.

Demographics

Dillingham first appeared on the 1910 U.S. Census as the unincorporated village of Kanakanak. In 1920, it returned as Chogiung and in 1930 and every successive census as Dillingham. It formally incorporated in 1963. See: Historic Locales & Confusion Over Place Names Around Dillingham

As of the census of 2000, there were 2,466 people, 884 households, and