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History · Port Clarence

The history of Port Clarence

Below: 6 old photos and papers, maps from 1950 on, and the census since 1890.

0on the National Register
6old photos & papers
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Port Clarence’s archive · credits on each photo
The story

How Port Clarence came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Port Clarence.

Read it all →

Missionary Sheldon Jackson's greatest success with his Teller Reindeer Station at Port Clarence, figured in the Overland Relief Expedition in 1897 to save marooned whalers near Point Barrow.

During the 1898-1899 gold rush in Nome, smaller quantities of both gold and high-grade tin were mined in Port Clarence.

The Harriman Alaska Expedition visited Port Clarence in 1899, making a photographic record of Alaska Natives.

In 1900, the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey charted the coastline.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

By decade

Port Clarence, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1890s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1890s6 items
Palaeo Eskimo Group1894Palaeo Eskimo GroupEskimo baskets, Port Clarence, Alaska, July 18991899Eskimo baskets, Port Clarence, Alaska, July 1899Eskimo boy and girl in fur parkas, Port Clarence, Alaska, July 18991899Eskimo boy and girl in fur parkas, Port Clarence, Ala…Eskimo child on the deck of a whaling ship, Port Clarence, Alaska, July 18991899Eskimo child on the deck of a whaling ship, Port Clar…Eskimo children with possibly a member of the expedition on the beach at Port Clarence, Alaska, July 18991899Eskimo children with possibly a member of the expedit…Eskimo in kayak, Port Clarence, Alaska, July 18991899Eskimo in kayak, Port Clarence, Alaska, July 1899
1900s–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
On the map

Port Clarence on the map in 1950

The U.S. Geological Survey’s map of Port Clarence.

Port Clarence on the 1950 USGS map1950Teller B-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 Port Clarence.

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.

Palaeo Eskimo Group
Retake this viewPalaeo Eskimo Group, 1894

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Port Clarence, census by census

0100200300400500190019201940196019802000Peak: 485

Between 21 and 485 people in every census since 1890.

5 censuses, 1890–2010.

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

Places that used to be

Old corners and places now gone

Old hamlets and crossroads still carry their names on the map.

Hamlets and corners on the map
Kalulek
Gone or out of use
KovogzruklocaleMetukatoaklocale

Places and cemeteries from the USGS Geographic Names Information System (2021).

Help out

Finish Port Clarence’s story

Most archives stop around 1920. The photos from after that are in family albums, not libraries.

Decades since 1900 with photos
00s10s20s30s40s50s60s70s80s90s
0 of 10 decades. The empty ones are waiting for someone’s album.
Retake an old viewPalaeo Eskimo Group: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10

Questions about Port Clarence’s history

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), Wikipedia, U.S. Geological Survey historical maps, U.S. Census counts (via Wikipedia) 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.