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History · Mountain Village

Mountain Village’s post office opened in 1934

Most of Mountain Village was built recently: 0.8% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1984. Below: 3 old photos and papers, maps from 1952 on, and the census since 1920.

1934first post office
0on the National Register
0.8%homes built before 1940
3old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Mountain Village’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Mountain Village began

When was Mountain Village founded?

1934

The Mountain Village post office opened in 1934, the earliest record of the town by name.

First census: 136 in 19202020 census: 62192 years
Founding year: the first Mountain Village post office (Blevins & Helbock, CC0).

What stands out about Mountain Village’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 3 old photos are in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost a third of its people between 1920 and 1930, then grew 8-fold.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Mountain Village’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Mountain Village’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 viewHerd of reindeer along shoreline near M…: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Mountain Village, census by census

0200400600800192019401960198020002020136 in 1920Low: 76

Lost a third of its people between 1920 and 1930, then grew 8-fold.

11 censuses, 1920–2020.

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

The story so far

Mountain Village, in brief

Wikipedia doesn’t have a history of Mountain Village yet. The photos, dates and memories neighbors add here are how it gets written.

Mountain Village (Central Yupik: Asaacaryaraq) is a city in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska, United States, located on the Yukon River near the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. As of the 2020 census, Mountain Village had a population of 621.

Its first post office opened in 1934. Between the 2010 and 2020 censuses its population fell from 813 to 621 (-24%).

Intro from Wikipedia. Population: U.S. Census Bureau.

Timeline

Mountain Village, 1914 to 2010

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1914In the archiveHerd of reindeer along shoreline near Mountain Village, ca. 1914
  3. 1934Post officeThe Mountain Village post office opens
  4. 1952On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  5. 21st century
  6. 2010CensusPopulation peaks at 813
By decade

Mountain Village, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1910s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1910s3 items
Herd of reindeer along shoreline near Mountain Village, ca. 1914c. 1914Herd of reindeer along shoreline near Mountain Villag…Men photographing reindeer along shoreline, Mountain Village, ca. 1914c. 1914Men photographing reindeer along shoreline, Mountain …Men photographing reindeer herd along shoreline near Mountain Village, ca. 1914c. 1914Men photographing reindeer herd along shoreline near …
1920s–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
Today3 recent
Mountain Hilton2012Mountain HiltonCarolyn2012CarolynMountain village by shore2008Mountain village by shore
On the map

Mountain Village on the map in 1952

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Mountain Village.

Mountain Village on the 1952 USGS map1952Kwiguk A-4 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 Mountain Village.

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.

Herd of reindeer along shoreline near Mountain Village, ca. 1914
Retake this viewHerd of reindeer along shoreline near Mountain Village, ca. 1914, c. 1914

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

Retake this view · +15

Questions about Mountain Village’s history

What year was Mountain Village founded?

The Mountain Village post office opened in 1934, 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 (6), 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.