Northeast Cape is a headland at the far eastern end of Saint Lawrence Island, formed by the Kinipaghulghat Mountains, between Cape Kulowye to the west and Cape Seevooka to the south, about 133 miles (214 km) southwest of Nome and 96 miles (155 km) east-southeast of Gambell, Alaska. The Siberian Yupik name for these mountains was first recorded in 1932 by Otto W. Geist of the University of Alaska. The island sits in the Bering Sea, roughly 130 miles (209 km) southwest of the Seward Peninsula and 40 miles  (64 km) southeast of the Chukotsky Peninsula in Siberia, Russia. In 1728, Danish Captain Vitus Bering—then in Russian service—visited and named the island on August 10, Saint Lawrence’s Day. The island spans about 1.28 million acres (518,000 ha), two-thirds of which is a tundra-covered, wave-cut platform raised locally by as much as 200 feet (61 m). The rest comprises clusters of barren talus and rubble-covered mountains whose granitic cores rise sharply 1,000 to 2,000 feet (305-610 m) above the platform. The Kinipaghulghat Mountains form an igneous intrusion covering roughly 41,600 acres (16,835 ha), with a summit of 1,820 feet (555 m). One of seven plutons on the island, these rocks date from the Middle Cretaceous—approximately 101 to 120 million years ago—and are composed primarily of quartz monzonite, granodiorite, and monzonite, with several minor components. The island is one of the last remnants of the land bridge that once joined Asia and North America during the Pleistocene. Historically known as Sivuqaq by the Yup’ik, archaeological evidence suggests humans first occupied the island 2,000 to 2,500 years ago. Early settlements were transient, marked by cycles of abandonment and reoccupation as resources and weather fluctuated. Travel between the island and the mainland was common during calm weather, so it served primarily as a seasonal hunting base.

Western contact with Saint Lawrence Island began with Russian explorations by Bering in 1728, followed by Kobelev in 1779, Billings in 1791 and Kotzebue in 1816. In the mid‑19th century about 4,000 Central Alaskan Yup’ik and Siberian Yupik subsisted on walrus and whale hunting and fishing. They lived in several villages and seasonal camps, including those around the Kinipaghulghat Mountains on Northeast Cape. Throughout the latter half of the century, interaction with the American commercial whaling fleet led dozens of vessels to stop annually to exchange firearms, whaling guns, iron tools, cloth, hardtack, beads and liquor for walrus ivory, baleen, furs and clothing. Archaeological finds from the ancient village of Kukulek, near present-day Savoonga, reveal that the Yup’ik had come to rely heavily on imported iron tools by the late 1870s. In addition to introducing new implements, foods, alcohol and diseases, the fleet slaughtered vast numbers of whales and walruses—precipitating the acute famine in 1878-1880. The famine spurred widespread starvation and mass emigration, decimating the island’s population. Evidence of this and earlier famines appears in human skeletons excavated at Gambell and Savoonga between 1931 and 1935 by Otto W. Geist. In 1880 Captain Michael A. Healy, aboard the revenue cutter USS Bear, visited the island and estimated that 500 of its 700 inhabitants had died of starvation. Contemporary reports blamed traders for supplying liquor, which led the people to neglect their customary provisions. In 1894 a Presbyterian mission and school were established under Vene C. Gambell, after whom the ancient village of Sivuqaq was renamed. Reindeer were introduced in 1900 to bolster the economy, and in 1903 President Theodore Roosevelt established a reindeer reservation. By 1917 the herd had grown to roughly 10,000 animals, and reindeer remain a source of subsistence meat. Gambell is the island’s oldest village, occupied throughout its human history, while Savoonga was founded in 1911–12.

The area around Northeast Cape and the Kinipaghulghat Mountains has long served as a seasonal hunting camp for Yupik families. Between 1951 and 1953 the US Air Force built Northeast Cape Air Force Station, which included an Aircraft Control and Warning radar site, a US Air Force Security Service listening post and a White Alice Communications System designed to warn of a Soviet attack. Deactivated on September 30, 1969, the station was abandoned in 1974. The facility was divided into two areas. The upper site atop the Kinipaghulghat Mountains housed radar towers, backup generators, communications equipment and remote crew quarters. At the mountain’s base near the coast, a lower area comprised 25 buildings and support structures, a beach landing and a gravel airstrip for shipping personnel and supplies. An aerial tramway connected the base to the summit radars. High maintenance costs eventually rendered the installation uneconomical. US defense sites include properties once operated by the Department of Defense, most built during the Cold War. Larger bases required extensive infrastructure—complete communities with living quarters, roads, runways, communications, surveillance, power generation, fuel storage, recreational facilities, airfields and waste management systems. In Alaska, roughly 600 former defense sites lie near Native communities and traditional fishing and hunting grounds. Toxic materials such as solvents, herbicides, pesticides, trace metals, human waste containers, chemical warfare agents and unexploded ordnance were used during operations and left behind when the posts closed. Given their remoteness, government remediation relied on natural attenuation, long‑term monitoring and institutional controls such as fences and signs to restrict access. After the station’s abandonment in the 1970s many locals suffered health problems—including high cancer rates—possibly from chemical exposure. In 1998, Operation Clean Sweep demolished the facility and restored the land. Read more here and here. Explore more of Northeast Cape and Saint Lawrence Island here: