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History · Nightmute

Nightmute was first counted by the census in 1940

Most of Nightmute was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1982. Below: maps from 1954 on and the census since 1940.

1940first census
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
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Quick answers

How Nightmute began

When was Nightmute founded?

1940

Nightmute first appears in the census in 1940.

First census: 78 in 19402020 census: 30686 years
Founding year: the first census.The full story ↓

What stands out about Nightmute’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 Nightmute are in the public archives yet. The rest are in attics and albums.Shrank, then grewLost two-thirds of its people between 1940 and 1950, then grew more than tenfold.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Nightmute’s collection

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

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
People over time

Nightmute, census by census

01002003001940196019802000202078 in 1940Low: 27

Lost two-thirds of its people between 1940 and 1950, then grew more than tenfold.

9 censuses, 1940–2020.

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

The story

How Nightmute came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Nightmute.

Read it all →

Negtemiut literally means ‘the people of the pressed-down place’. The first element is negte- ‘to press down on’. The suffix is -miut ‘people’.

It first appeared on the 1940 U.S. Census as the unincorporated Native village of "Nigtmuit". In 1950 and 1960, it was spelled "Nigtmute". In 1970, the spelling used was "Nightmute". It formally incorporated in 1974.

In 1964, many of its residents relocated by dogsled and founded the bayside community of Toksook Bay about 15 miles (24 km) downriver. The relocation was to avoid the yearly spring-winter migration to and from Umkumiut and Nightmute.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Nightmute, 1952 to 2020

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1952Post officeThe Nightmute post office opens
  3. 1954On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
  4. 1964Post officeThe Nightmute post office closes
  5. 21st century
  6. 2020CensusPopulation peaks at 306
By decade

No old photos in the archives yet

Weddings on Main Street, storms, parades, school pictures, the old store. If it’s in your family album, it belongs here.

Be the first to add onePhotograph a print flat, in daylight, no flash.
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On the map

Nightmute on the map in 1954

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

Nightmute on the 1954 USGS map1954Baird Inlet B-8 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 Nightmute.

Places that used to be

Lost post offices, old corners and places now gone

Nightmute had its own post office from 1952 to 1964.

Nightmute
1952–1964
19501990today
Hamlets and corners on the map
KanloyakUkuk
Gone or out of use
Nightmute Post Officepost officeNuloktoloklocale

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

Questions about Nightmute’s history

What year was Nightmute founded?

The Nightmute post office opened in 1940, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1974.

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 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.