Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Aniak

We’ll email a one-tap link to publish your post. No password, and nothing is public until you click it.
Already a member? Sign in
–Not graded
History · Aniak

Aniak’s post office opened in 1914

Most of Aniak was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1987. Below: 5 old photos and papers from 1917 on.

1914first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
5old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Aniak’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Aniak began

When was Aniak founded?

1914

The Aniak post office opened in 1914, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1972.

2020 census: 507112 years
Founding year: the first Aniak post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1972.The full story ↓
The story

How Aniak came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Aniak.

Read it all →

Aniak is the Central Alaskan Yup'ik name for the area around present-day Aniak. The word means "the place where it comes out" - that is, where the Aniak River flows into the Kuskokwim. The local Yup'ik people had deserted the original village at Aniak by the early-19th century, when Russian explorers first arrived in the area.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Aniak, 1914 to 1998

Woven from the archive, old maps, post office records, the National Register and the people born here.

  1. 20th century
  2. 1914Post officeThe Aniak post office opens
  3. 1917In the archiveLanding Fields - Alaska
  4. 1998In the archiveANI-Aerial Map
By decade

Aniak, decade by decade

2 decades in the archive, from the 1910s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s4 items
Landing Fields - Alaska1917Landing Fields - AlaskaLanding Fields - Alaska1917Landing Fields - AlaskaLanding Fields - Alaska1917Landing Fields - AlaskaLanding Fields - Alaska1917Landing Fields - Alaska
1920s–1980snothing yet
Nothing in the archives for these yearsWeddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.
Add from your album
1990s1 item
ANI-Aerial Map1998ANI-Aerial MapMap
Today1 recent
Aniakshore2001Aniakshore
Then & now

Stand where they stood

No then-and-now pairs yet. Take a photo from the same spot as an old one and they appear here side by side.

Landing Fields - Alaska
Retake this viewLanding Fields - Alaska, 1917

Find the spot, match the angle, and add your photo. It becomes the first then-and-now pair on Aniak’s page.

Retake this view · +15
Help out

Finish Aniak’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
2 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewLanding Fields - Alaska: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Aniak’s history

What year was Aniak founded?

The Aniak post office opened in 1914, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1972.

Memory lane

What the archives can’t tell you, neighbors can.

Town Square →
Start a conversation
Sources

Where this page comes from

Founding dates: Wikidata, Wikipedia, the U.S. post office records of Blevins & Helbock (CC0) and the Census. Homes by year built: Census ACS 2020–24. National Register of Historic Places: National Park Service (list of May 22, 2026). Old photos, postcards and papers: Wikimedia Commons, the Library of Congress and other public archives, credited on each item’s page. Maps: U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (via Esri) and Sanborn fire-insurance maps (Library of Congress). History text and census tables: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0). Places that used to be: USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021). How TownRatings grades history →

From Wikimedia Commons (6), Wikipedia, the US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock) and the USGS Geographic Names Information System. Archive images are copied here with their credits and licenses, shown on each photo’s page. Refreshed monthly.