The Pitmegea River originates at an elevation of about 1,300 feet (396 m) in the De Long Mountains of the western Brooks Range, and flows northwest for 37 miles (60 km) to the Chukchi Sea at Cape Sabine, about 70 miles (113 km) south-southwest of Point Lay and 66 miles (106 km) northeast of Point Hope, Alaska. The river drains a watershed of approximately 351,053 acres (142,066 ha). Cape Sabine was named in 1826 by Captain Frederick W. Beechey in honor of astronomer Edward Sabine. The river’s name, first recorded by John W. Kelly in 1890, is of Iñupiat origin, though its meaning is unknown. The watershed is underlain by rocks of the Corwin Formation, which formed during the Mesozoic and consists primarily of unaltered sandstones, conglomerates, and shales, with no limestone or chert beds. Pleistocene deposits cover much of the Corwin Formation and include gravel, silt, and permafrost overlain by 6 to 10 feet (2–3 m) of peat and tundra vegetation. The ground ice is not a continuous layer but occurs in irregular, lenticular masses that range in composition from pure ice to frozen silt. The formation extends inland from the beach for up to 0.5 miles (0.8 km) in a tundra plain cut by numerous deep channels. At the coast, beach cliff erosion exposes the ground ice, which melts rapidly, causing the edges of the peat layer to sag and cover it. Coal was first reported here in 1826 during Beechey’s expedition to locate Sir John Franklin.

Along with other Inuit groups, the Iñupiat originate from the Thule culture, which migrated north from islands in the Bering Sea about 2,500 years ago, likely in pursuit of food. The coastal Iñupiat, known as the Tikiġaġmiut, subsist primarily on fish, walrus, seals, beluga whales, bowhead whales, and polar bears. Seasonally, they also rely on ducks, geese, rabbits, berries, roots, and shoots. Following the arrival of European explorers in 1778 and the subsequent industrial whaling boom of the late 19th century, the Tikiġaġmiut suffered epidemics of introduced diseases and food shortages as their resources were overexploited. During this period, as steam engines began replacing or supplementing sail power, whalers frequently replenished their fuel supplies from the coal beds at Cape Sabine, particularly at Corwin Bluff. The US Revenue Cutter Service ship Thomas Corwin stopped for coal in 1881, and in 1888 the USS Thetis took on coal at the Thetis Mine. In 1884 or 1885, Henry D. Woolfe and John W. Kelly, employed by the Pacific Steam-Whaling Company, built a shore whaling station at Corwin Bluff with Iñupiat labor. Across much of the western Arctic, nearly all able-bodied Iñupiat worked at least part of the year in the commercial whaling industry. In 1898, during the Overland Relief Expedition to Point Barrow, Lieutenant David H. Jarvis camped at the Corwin coal mine. By then, only part of the Woolfe and Kelly house remained standing, most of it having been torn down for firewood by travelers en route to or from Point Barrow.

Coastal travelers, including mail carriers, often used dog sleds in the winter and relied on well-known roadhouses along the trail for shelter. The winter trail gradually became less maintained after the introduction of airplanes; however, it is still used today by snow machines. In 1957 an airstrip was built at Cape Sabine as part of a Distant Early Warning Line Radar station. This station was an intermediate facility to support the Cape Lisburne Air Force Station. Intermediate stations were positioned between main sites. Eight intermediate sites were constructed in Alaska, including (from west to east) Cape Sabine, Icy Cape, Peard Bay, Cape Simpson, Kogru, Point McIntyre, Camden Bay and Demarcation Bay. These sites consisted of a modular living and housing area and its support facilities, including water supply, sewage disposal, a garage and shop, four oil-storage tanks, a gravel-surface airstrip of 1,250 feet (381 m), a beaching area and roads. There was no rotating radar. The facility at Cape Sabine was closed in 1963. Radars and other military buildings were removed around 2000, returning the site to its natural condition. The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation identified eight areas of contamination at Cape Sabine requiring asbestos removal; the cleanup of existing structures—including a water tank, pump house, pipeline, warehouse and radio tower; and soil removal and backfill. Read more here and here. Explore more of Pitmegea River and Cape Sabine here: