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History · Selawik

Selawik was first counted by the census in 1880

Most of Selawik was built recently: 0.0% of its homes predate 1940 and the median home dates from 1988. Below: 1 old photo or paper, maps from 1951 on, and the census since 1880.

1880first census
0on the National Register
0.0%homes built before 1940
1old photo or paper
Add an old photoShare a memory
From Selawik’s archive · credits on each photo
Quick answers

How Selawik began

When was Selawik founded?

1880

Selawik first appears in the census in 1880.

First census: 100 in 18802020 census: 809146 years
Founding year: the first census.The full story ↓

What stands out about Selawik’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 1 old photo is in the public archives. The rest are in attics and albums.
★ What stands out · Help out

Start Selawik’s collection

The first neighbors to add old photos shape how Selawik’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 viewSelawik women: stand where they stood+15Share a family photoSign in to add one+10
The story

How Selawik came to be

From Wikipedia’s history of Selawik.

Read it all →

A Lt. Lavrenty Zagoskin of the Imperial Russian Navy first reported the village in the 1840s as "Chilivik." In his census study in 1880, Ivan Petrof counted 100 "Selawigamute" people.

Around 1908, the village site had a small wooden schoolhouse and church. The village now has expanded across the Selawik River onto three banks, linked by bridges.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Timeline

Selawik, 1929 to 1951

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

  1. 20th century
  2. 1929In the archiveSelawik women
  3. 1931Post officeThe Selawik post office opens
  4. 1951On the mapFirst mapped by the U.S. Geological Survey
By decade

Selawik, decade by decade

One decade in the archive so far: the 1920s. Scroll each row; tap a photo for its story.

1920s1 item
Selawik women1929Selawik women
1930s–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

Selawik on the map in 1951

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

Selawik on the 1951 USGS map1951Selawik 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 Selawik.

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.

Selawik women
Retake this viewSelawik women, 1929

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

Retake this view · +15
People over time

Selawik, census by census

020040060080018801900192019401960198020002020Peak: 829

Between 100 and 829 people in every census since 1880.

12 censuses, 1880–2020.

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

Questions about Selawik’s history

What year was Selawik founded?

The Selawik post office opened in 1880, the earliest record of the town by name (U.S. post office records). Wikidata gives 1977.

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 the Library of Congress (1), 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.