Location: Fairbanks, Alaska Map
Area: 1,669,813 acres (6,757.49 km2)
Official site
Kobuk Valley National Park is located near Fairbanks, Alaska in USA.
Kobuk Valley National Park covers an area of 1,669,813 acres
(6,757.49 km2), making it the sixth largest national park in Alaska
and the ninth in the entire United States. It is located about 40 km
north of the Arctic Circle, which protects the migration routes of
the caribou and the large sand dunes of Kobuk (Great Kobuk Sand
Dunes). Administratively, the park belongs to the borough Northwest
Arctic. It was first established as a national monument in 1978 and
then as a national park in 1980.
Kobuk Valley National Park
protects a section of the valley of the Kobuk river, more or less
the central section of the river that ends up in the Kotzebue Sound,
in the Chukchi sea. The Kobuk River has a total length of 280 km, of
which 177 km are also considered as wild river and national
landscape. The valley is limited by the mountains of Waring, in the
south, and by the mountains of Baird, in the north. This park is the
center of a vast protected ecosystem also composed of the Selawik
National Wildlife Refuge (Selawik National Wildlife Refuge, with 8
700 km²), the Noatak National Reserve (Noatak National Preserve,
with 26 587 km²), located to the north , and the Puertas del Ártico
national park and reserve, which is located about 50 km west,
adjoining Noatak (34,287 km²). The most visible animals are the
400,000 caribou from the western Arctic herd. The herd migrates
annually between its winter breeding sites, south of the Waring
Mountains, and the summer birth sites, north of the Baird Mountains.
The annual crossing of the Kobuk River of the herd is essential for
the subsistence hunting of the Inupiaq tribe.
No road leads
to Kobuk Valley National Park. It is accessible on foot, dog
sledding, snowmobiles and air taxis chartered from Nome and Kotzebue
all year round. The park is one of the least visited in the United
States National Park System, classified as the least visited
national park in the country in 2006, with only 3,005 visitors.
Incredibly, these visits were reduced to only 847 visitors in the
year 2007.
Human habitation in Kobuk Valley is believed to
extend back at least 12,500 years. The present inhabitants of the
valley are the Inupiat people, who subsist on hunting and fishing in
the region. The Onion Portage Archeological District is a National
Historic Landmark district at the east end of the Kobuk River's
course through the park. The site, strategically located at a major
caribou river crossing, documents nine cultural complexes spanning
from 8,000–6,000 BC to about 1000–1700 AD. The site is an inholding
of the NANA Regional Corporation, an Alaskan native corporation with
rights in the park.
The first human inhabitants of the Kobuk
Valley were people of the Paleo-Arctic Tradition, who hunted caribou
at Onion Portage. The region was apparently deserted for about 2,000
years until people of the Archaic tradition appeared in the valley
from the south and east. By about 4,000 years before the present,
people of the Arctic Small Tool tradition arrived, but departed
between 1,500 and 1,000 years ago, again leaving the valley
unoccupied. New people arrived by about 1200 AD, as documented by
the Ahteut site 25 miles (40 km) downriver from Onion Portage.
People remained in the valley until the mid-19th century, when the
caribou population declined and people moved closer to the coast.
These people were the Akunirmiut and Kuuvaum Kangiamirnuit. One of
their villages was located in the present park at the mouth of the
Hunt River. Their descendants, now known as the Kuuvangmiit, have
mostly moved out of park lands.
About 32 prospectors' camps
were established during a short gold rush in 1899–1900. Surveys have
not yet located them, although debris associated with the miners'
boats has been found all over the region.
The park protects a stretch of the Kobuk River Valley,
roughly the middle stretch of the river that empties into Kotzebue Sound
in the Chukchi Sea. The Kobuk River has a total length of 280 km, of
which 177 km are also considered a national wild and scenic river. The
valley is bounded by the Waring Mountains in the south and the Baird
Mountains in the north. This park is the center of a vast protected
ecosystem also made up of the Selawik National Wildlife Refuge, with
8,700 km², the Noatak National Preserve, with 26,587 km², located to the
north , and the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Reserve, which is
located about 50 km to the west, adjacent to Noatak (34,287 km²). The
most visible animals are the 400,000 caribou of the Western Arctic herd.
The herd migrates annually between their winter breeding grounds south
of the Waring Mountains and their summer calving grounds north of the
Baird Mountains. The herd's annual crossing of the Kobuk River is
essential for Inupiaq subsistence hunting.
No road leads to the
park. It is accessible by foot, dog sledding, snowmobiling, and
chartered air taxis from Nome and Kotzebue year-round. The park is one
of the least visited in the United States National Park System, ranking
as the least visited national park in the country in 2006, with only
3,005 visitors. Incredibly, these visits were reduced to only 847
visitors in 2007.
The park features backcountry camping, hiking,
camping, and dog sledding.
The area was first protected by proclamation on
December 1, 1978 as a national monument of the United States, forming
part of a group of 15 natural areas in Alaska that Jimmy Carter, using
presidential prerogative, proclaimed new national monuments, after that
the United States Congress had postponed a large purchase of Alaskan
lands that had strong state opposition. Congress passed the Alaska
National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980, which incorporated
most of these national monuments into national parks and preserves, but
also limited future use of the land. presidential prerogative in Alaska.
On December 2, 1980, the monument became a national park.
The park is located in a transition zone between the
boreal forest and the Arctic tundra. The best-known animal species are
elk, salmon, and especially caribou. There are more than 400,000 of them
and they migrate each year between their winter and summer quarters.
They have always represented an important source of traditional
subsistence for the Inupiaq people, who live from hunting and fishing in
the area. Wildlife also includes wolves, black bears, brown bears, red
foxes, Canada lynx, otters and Dall sheep. Gluttons, porcupines and
martens are also found.
Northern lights are often visible, as
they are often in northern Alaska, on winter nights when solar activity
is high.