Updated on Apr 13, 2021
Kotzebue or Qikiqtaġruk is a city in the Northwest Arctic Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the borough's seat, by far its largest community and the economic and transportation hub of the subregion of Alaska encompassing the borough. The population of the city was 3,102 as of the 2020 census, down from 3,201 in 2010. The city has received an All-America City award.
Owing to its location and relative size, Kotzebue served as a trading and gathering center for the various communities in the region. The Noatak, Selawik and Kobuk Rivers drain into the Kotzebue Sound near Kotzebue to form a center for transportation to points inland. In addition to people from interior villages, inhabitants of far-eastern Asia, now the Russian Far East, came to trade at Kotzebue. Furs, seal-oil, hides, rifles, ammunition, and seal skins were some of the items traded. People also gathered for competitions like the current World Eskimo Indian Olympics. With the arrival of the whalers, traders, gold seekers, and missionaries the trading center expanded.
Kotzebue is also known as Qikiqtaġruk, means "small island" or "resembles an island" in the Iñupiaq language. In the words of the late Iñupiaq elder Blanche Qapuk Lincoln of Kotzebue: "Iḷiḷgaaŋukapta tamarra pamna imiqaqtuq. Taavaasii kuuqahuni taiñña Adams-kutlu Ipaalook-kutlu, taapkuak piagun tavra. Taiñña suli Katyauratkutlu, Lena Norton tupqata piagun tavra kuuk suli taugani...Manna uvva qikiqtaq, Qikiqtaġruŋmik tavra atiqautiginiġaa qikiqtaupluni. Nunałhaiñġuqtuq marra pakma." ("When we were children there was water behind front street and a slough between the Ipalooks and Adams'. There was another slough over between Coppocks and Lena Norton's house...The island on Front Street led to Kotzebue being called Qikiqtaġruk because island in Iñupiaq is called qikiqtaq .").
Kotzebue gets its name from the Kotzebue Sound, which was named after Otto von Kotzebue, a Baltic German who explored the sound while searching for the Northwest Passage in the service of Russia in 1818.
A United States post office was established in 1899.
In 1997, three 66-kw wind turbines were installed in Kotzebue, creating the northernmost wind farm in the United States. Today, the wind farm consists of 19 turbines, including two 900 kW EWT turbines. The total installed capacity has reached 3-MW, displacing approximately 250,000 gallons of diesel fuel every year.
On September 2, 2015, U.S. President Barack Obama gave a speech on global warming in Kotzebue, becoming the first sitting president to visit a site north of the Arctic Circle.
Since 2016, the United States Coast Guard has deployed MH-60 Jayhawk helicopters to Kotzebue from the beginning of July to the end of October as part of Operation Arctic Shield.
On December 3rd, 2018, Mike Dunleavy was sworn in as the 12th governor of Alaska in Kotzebue's high school gymnasium after inclement weather thwarted his plan to hold the ceremony in Noorvik.
Kotzebue lies on a gravel spit at the end of the Baldwin Peninsula in the Kotzebue Sound. It is located at (66.897192, −162.585444), approximately from Noatak, Kiana, and other nearby smaller communities. It is north of the Arctic Circle on Alaska's western coast.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land, and , or 5.76%, is water.
Kotzebue is home to the NANA Regional Corporation, one of thirteen Alaska Native Regional Corporations created under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA) in settlement of Alaska Native land claims.
Kotzebue is a gateway to Kobuk Valley National Park and other natural attractions of northern Alaska. A Northwest Arctic Heritage Center is located in the town to acclimate National Park Service travelers. Nearby Selawik National Wildlife Refuge also maintains office space in the town.
Kotzebue has a dry subarctic climate (Köppen Dfc ), with long, somewhat snowy, and very cold winters, and short, mild summers diurnal temperature variation is low to minimal throughout the year, with an annual normal of and a minimum normal of in October. Monthly daily average temperatures range from in January to in July, with an annual mean of . Days with the maximum reaching at or above can be expected an average of six days per summer. Precipitation is both most frequent and greatest during the summer months with August the wettest month averaging . Kotzebue average precipitation is per year. Snowfall averages about a season (July through
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This page uses material from the Wikipedia article Kotzebue, Alaska , which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.