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History · Kipnuk

Kipnuk’s post office opened in 1951

Most of Kipnuk was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1991. Below: maps from 1954 on and the census since 1940.

1951first post office
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
1famous people
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Photo: Janelle Carl · CC BY 2.0
Quick answers

How Kipnuk began

When was Kipnuk founded?

1951

The Kipnuk post office opened in 1951, the earliest record of the town by name. Wikidata gives 1968.

First census: 144 in 19402020 census: 70475 years
Founding year: the first Kipnuk post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Wikidata: 1968.The full story ↓

What stands out about Kipnuk’s past

Read from the archive, the National Register and the record. The page puts what stands out first.

A history waiting to be writtenNo old photos of Kipnuk are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Kipnuk’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Kipnuk’s history is told.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
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The story

How Kipnuk came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Kipnuk.

Read it all →

In October 2025, the low-lying town was severely damaged by the remnants of Typhoon Halong which caused flooding from ocean.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Kipnuk, 1926 to 1954

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1926Born hereLena Atti is born here
  3. 1951Post officeThe Kipnuk post office opens
  4. 1954On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Kipnuk, decade by decade

Today8 recent
Kipnuk Aperture 3- 5.02015Kipnuk Aperture 3- 5.0Kipnuk Aperture 2- 4.02015Kipnuk Aperture 2- 4.0Kipnuk Aperture 2- 4.0 (16607441513) (cropped)2015Kipnuk Aperture 2- 4.0 (16607441513) (cropped)Kipnuk Aperture 1- 2.82015Kipnuk Aperture 1- 2.8Kipnuk April 20092009Kipnuk April 2009Wedding in2008Wedding inFlickr - The U.S. Army - David Martin and Caroline Hoover2008Flickr - The U.S. Army - David Martin and Caroline Ho…AKMap-doton-Kipnuk2004AKMap-doton-Kipnuk
On the map

Kipnuk on the map in 1954

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kipnuk.

Kipnuk on the 1954 USGS map1954Kuskokwim Bay D-6 sheet · 1:63,360

U.S. Geological Survey historical topographic maps (public domain), via Esri’s collection of the scans. The red ring marks the center of Kipnuk.

People over time

Kipnuk, census by census

010020030040050060070019401960198020002020704

Grew from 144 people in 1940 to 704 in 2020, 4 times over.

9 censuses, 1940–2020.

U.S. Census Bureau decennial counts, from the census table on Kipnuk’s Wikipedia page.

Questions about Kipnuk’s history

What year was Kipnuk founded?

The Kipnuk post office opened in 1951, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1968.

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 (8), Wikipedia, Wikidata and Wikipedia for famous people, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via 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.