Tukrok River flows for 7 miles (11 km) from Krusenstern Lagoon to Kotzebue Sound in Cape Krusenstern National Monument, about 166 miles (268 km) northeast of Wales and 23 miles (37 km) northwest of Kotzebue, Alaska. The Iñupiat name means “inlet entrance” according to the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey in 1950. The national monument is administrated by the National Park Service that maintains the Anigaaq Ranger Station. The cabin also serves as a winter emergency shelter along a winter trail at the mouth of the Tukrok River.

Cape Krusenstern National Monument comprises the coast of the Chukchi Sea between Hotham Inlet at the mouth of the Kobuk River to a point near Imikruk Lagoon. The coastline is marked by a series of lagoons separated from the sea by barrier spits. The largest is Krusenstern Lagoon at Cape Krusenstern. Others include the Kotlik Lagoon, Imik Lagoon, and Aukulak Lagoon.

There is evidence of 5,000 years of occupation along the coast by the Iñupiat people and more than 9,000 years of human occupation. The area was used historically for trading between coastal and inland tribes. Europeans visited the Cape Krusenstern region to pursue whales beginning in the 1850s. At the time of the Alaska Purchase in 1867, Alaska was generally roadless with only a network of loosely connected trails established by local hunters. In 1905, the U.S. Congress established the Alaska Road Commission that flagged over 247 miles (398 km) of winter trails on the Seward Peninsula and built a series of emergency shelter cabins for travelers. Many of these survive today including the cabin at Anigaaq that was built in 1925. Read more here and here. Explore more of Tukrok River here: