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History · Mekoryuk

Mekoryuk’s post office opened in 1947

Most of Mekoryuk was built recently: 0.7% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1983. Below: 2 old photos and papers from 1972 on.

1947first post office
0on the National Register
0.7%homes built before 1940
2old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Mekoryuk’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Mekoryuk began

When was Mekoryuk founded?

1947

The Mekoryuk post office opened in 1947, the earliest record of the town by name. Another post office, Mekoryok (1946), opened inside today’s city and later closed.

2020 census: 20679 years
Founding year: the first Mekoryuk post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).The full story ↓

What stands out about Mekoryuk’s past

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

A history waiting to be writtenOnly 2 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Mekoryuk’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
1 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewNative Alaskan women black and white ph…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Mekoryuk came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Mekoryuk.

Read it all →

Nunivak Island has been inhabited for 2,000 years by the Nuniwarmiut, or Nunivak Cup'ig people.

The community's first contact with Europeans was in 1821 when explorers from the Russian-American Company arrived on their island. These Russians recorded 400 people living in 16 villages on the Nunivak Island.

While conducting the 1880 United States Census, Ivan Petrof recorded 702 Yup'ik in 9 villages, including 117 people at "Koot", near the site of present-day Mekoryuk. An epidemic in 1900 left only four surviving families in the village.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Mekoryuk, 1946 to 1972

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1946Post officeThe Mekoryok post office opens
  3. 1947Post officeThe Mekoryok post office closes
  4. 1947Post officeThe Mekoryuk post office opens
  5. 1972In the archiveNative Alaskan women black and white photo
By decade

Mekoryuk, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1970s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1970s2 items
Native Alaskan women black and white photo1972Native Alaskan women black and white photoMekoryuk, Alaska, 19781978Mekoryuk, Alaska, 1978
1980s–1990snothing 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
Today2 recent
Locally built auxiliary sailing vessels at2013Locally built auxiliary sailing vessels atAlbert day on Nunivak island2013Albert day on Nunivak island
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.

Native Alaskan women black and white photo
Retake this viewNative Alaskan women black and white photo, 1972

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

Retake this view · +15
Places that used to be

Lost post offices

Mekoryuk’s post office has been open since 1947. Another post office, Mekoryok, opened and closed inside today’s town.

Mekoryok
1946–1947
Mekoryuk
1947–today
19401980today

US Post Offices dataset (Blevins & Helbock, CC0). Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Questions about Mekoryuk’s history

What year was Mekoryuk founded?

The Mekoryuk post office opened in 1947, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records).

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 (4), 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.