Guest, Sign inJoin

Post to Kivalina

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 · Kivalina

Kivalina was first counted by the census in 1920

Most of Kivalina was built recently: 0.5% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1980. Below: 5 old photos and papers, maps from 1951 on, and the census since 1920.

1920first census
0on the National Register
0.5%homes built before 1940
5old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Kivalina’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Kivalina began

When was Kivalina founded?

1920

Kivalina first appears in the census in 1920.

First census: 87 in 19202020 census: 444106 years
Founding year: the first census.The full story ↓
The story

How Kivalina came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Kivalina.

Read it all →

Kivalina is an Iñupiat community first reported as "Kivualinagmut" in 1847 by Lt. Lavrenty Zagoskin of the Imperial Russian Navy. It has long been a stopping place for travelers between Arctic coastal areas and Kotzebue Sound communities. Three bodies and artifacts were found in 2009 representing the Ipiutak culture, a pre-Thule, non-whaling civilization that disappeared over a millennium ago.

It is the only village in the region where people hunt the bowhead whale. The original village was located at the north end of the Kivalina Lagoon, but was relocated.

In about 1900, reindeer were brought to the area and some people were trained as reindeer herders.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Kivalina, 1900 to 1999

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1900In the archivePublic school
  3. 1916In the archiveEskimos
  4. 1942Post officeThe Kivalina post office opens
  5. 1951On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  6. 1999In the archiveKivalina Alaska aerial view
By decade

Kivalina, decade by decade

3 decades in the archive, from the 1900s to the 1990s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1900s–1910s3 items
Public school1900Public schoolEskimo town council1900Eskimo town councilEskimos1916Eskimos
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
Kivalina Alaska aerial view1999Kivalina Alaska aerial view
Date unknown1 to date
KivalinaOrangeGooDate?KivalinaOrangeGoo
Today5 recent
Kivalina 12014Kivalina 1Kivalina 22012Kivalina 2Sarah Palin Christmas 22008Sarah Palin Christmas 2Sarah Palin Christmas 12008Sarah Palin Christmas 1AKMap-doton-Kivalina2004AKMap-doton-Kivalina
On the map

Kivalina on the map, 1951 to 1964

Every edition of the U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Kivalina. Tap a year, or press play to watch the town change.

Kivalina on the 1951 USGS mapKivalina on the 1964 USGS map1951Noatak sheet · 1:250,000

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

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.

Public school
Retake this viewPublic school, 1900

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Kivalina, census by census

0100200300400192019401960198020002020444

Grew from 87 people in 1920 to 444 in 2020, 5 times over.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

Help out

Start Kivalina’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
3 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Date a photo1 archive item has no date. Guess the decade.+2Retake an old viewPublic school: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Kivalina’s history

What year was Kivalina founded?

The Kivalina post office opened in 1920, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1969.

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 (7), the Library of Congress (3), Wikipedia, 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.