Point Hope is a city in
North Slope BoroughNorth Slope Borough is a borough located largely in the North Slope region of the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2000 census, the population was 7,385...
,
AlaskaAlaska is the largest state of the United States of America by area; it is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...
,
United StatesThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. At the 2000 census the population was 757.
Geography
Point Hope town is located in the
Point HopePoint Hope is a landhead in the U.S. state of Alaska, located at the western tip of the Lisburne Peninsula. It lies on the Chukchi Sea coast, 40 miles southwest of Cape Lisburne, Arctic Slope at...
landhead, at the NW end of the
Lisburne PeninsulaThe Lisburne Peninsula is a peninsula jutting out into the Chukchi Sea on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located at the westernmost point of the North Slope Borough. It is roughly trapezoid-shaped, having two points, the northwestern one being Cape Lisburne and the...
, on the
Chukchi SeaChukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea...
coast, 40 mi. SW of Cape Lisburne, Arctic Slope at (68.347052, -166.762917).
According to the
United States Census BureauThe United States Census Bureau is the government agency that is responsible for the United States Census. It also gathers other national demographic and economic data. As part of the United States Department of Commerce, the Census Bureau serves as the leading source of quality data about...
, the city has a total area of 6.4 square miles (16.6 km²), of which, 6.3 square miles (16.4 km²) of it is land and 0.1 square miles (0.2 km²) of it (1.09%) is water.
Demographics
As of the
censusA "census" is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population.In other words every 10 years...next one would be in 2010 The term is used mostly in connection with...
of 2000, there were 757 people, 186 households, and 151 families residing in the city. The
population densityPopulation density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans. It is a key term used in geography....
was 119.4 people per square mile (46.1/km²). There were 215 housing units at an average density of 33.9/sq mi (13.1/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 8.72%
WhiteRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget , are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 0.13%
BlackRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget , are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
or
African AmericanRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget , are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 87.05%
Native AmericanRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget , are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 0.13%
AsianRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget , are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, 0.13% from
other racesRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget , are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
, and 3.83% from two or more races. 1.72% of the population were
HispanicRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget , are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
or
LatinoRace and ethnicity in the United States Census, as defined by the United States Census Bureau and the Federal Office of Management and Budget , are self-identification data items in which residents choose the race or races with which they most closely identify, and indicate whether or not they are...
of any race.
There were 186 households out of which 54.8% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.0% were
married couplesMarriage is a social union or legal contract between individuals that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged by a variety of ways, depending on the culture or demographic...
living together, 19.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 18.3% were non-families. 13.4% of all households were made up of individuals and 2.2% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.07 and the average family size was 4.50.
In the city the population was spread out with 42.5% under the age of 18, 11.6% from 18 to 24, 26.0% from 25 to 44, 14.7% from 45 to 64, and 5.2% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 22 years. For every 100 females there were 122.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 118.6 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $63,125, and the median income for a family was $66,250. Males had a median income of $41,750 versus $35,625 for females. The
per capita incomePer capita income means how much each individual receives, in monetary terms, of the yearly income generated in the country. This is what each citizen is to receive if the yearly national income is divided equally among everyone. Per capita income is usually reported in units of currency per year...
for the city was $16,641. About 13.9% of families and 14.8% of the population were below the poverty line, including 17.3% of those under age 18 and 16.2% of those age 65 or over.
History
The descriptive
InuitInuit is a general term for a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada, Greenland, and Alaska...
name of the place, "Tikarakh" or "
TikigaqThe Tikigaq, an Inuit people, live two hundred miles north of the Arctic Circle, southwest of Barrow, Alaska, in an Inupiaq village of Point Hope, Alaska. The Tikigaq are the oldest continuously settled Native American site on the continent...
" commonly spelled "Tiagara," means "forefinger". It was recorded as "Tiekagagmiut" in 1861 by P. Tikhmeniev Wich of the
Russian Hydrographic DepartmentThe Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...
and on Russian Chart 1495 it became "Tiekaga". This ancient village site was advantageous, because the protrusion of Point Hope into the sea brought the whales close to the shore. At Tikigaq, they built semi-subterranean houses using mainly whalebone and driftwood. Point Hope is one of the oldest continually occupied sites in North America. While some of the earlier dwellings have been lost to erosion as the island shrinks, it still provides a welter of valuable information to archaeologists on how early Eskimos survived in their harsh environment. The Tikigaq site is "by far the most extensive and complete one-period site yet discovered and described in the entire circumpolar region." - Helge Larsen
The first recorded Europeans to sight this cape were
RussianThe Russian people are an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....
explorers
Mikhail VasilievMikhail Nikolayevich Vasilyev was a Russian explorer and vice admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. He is reputed for having surveyed the then little-known coast of Alaska as navigator. Vasiliev was sent by the Russian Imperial Hydrographic Service in 1819 to explore the northern parts of the...
and
Gleb ShishmaryovGleb Semyonovich Shishmaryov was a rear admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. He is reputed for having surveyed the then little-known coast of Alaska as navigator...
of the
Imperial Russian NavyThe Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the Bolshevik Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...
on ships
Otkrietie and
Blagonamierennie. Vasiliev and Shishmaryov named this landhead
Mys Golovnina, after Vice Admiral
Vasily GolovninVasily Mikhailovich Golovnin , Russian navigator, Vice Admiral, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg ....
(1776-1831).
The cape at Point Hope was renamed by Captain
Frederick William BeecheyFrederick William Beechey was an English naval officer and geographer. He was the son of Sir William Beechey, RA., and was born in London.-Career:...
of the
Royal NavyThe Royal Navy of the United Kingdom is the oldest of HM Armed Forces . From the beginning of the 18th century until well into the 20th century, it was the most powerful navy in the world, playing a key part in establishing the British Empire as the dominant world power from 1815 until the early...
, who wrote in August 2, 1826:
"I named it Point Hope in compliment to Sir William Johnstone HopeVice Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope, GCB was a prominent and controversial British Royal Navy officer and politician in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain, whose career experienced fleet actions, disputes with royalty, party politics and entry to both Russian and British...
". According to Archdeacon Stuck (1920, p. 96) Hope was from a "well-known house long connected with the sea".
Point Hope residents successfully opposed
Operation Chariot (1958)Project Chariot was a 1958 US Atomic Energy Commission proposal to construct an artificial harbor at Cape Thompson on the North Slope of the U.S...
, which would have involved atmospheric thermonuclear detonations some 30 miles from the village.