Sheshalik is a spit approximately 6 miles (10 km) long, situated on Kotzebue Sound and within Cape Krusenstern National Monument, about 40 miles (64 km) south of Noatak and 10 miles (16 km) northwest of Kotzebue, Alaska. The spit is formed by a series of accretionary beach ridges that also enclose several ponds and tidal lagoons. For generations, the Iñupiat people from Noatak and Kotzebue have used the spit as a summer hunting camp due to its proximity to wood, water, and rich marine resources. The camp at the end of the spit is called Nuvuuraq, meaning “the point,” and is traditionally used by the Noatak people. Captain Frederick W. Beechey recorded the name of this village as “Sesualik” in 1831. Another camp, about 4 miles (6 km) from the base of the spit, is called Sisualik, meaning “where there are white whales,” and is traditionally used by the Kotzebue people. The Noatak community sets up cabins and tents on the two beach ridges closest to Kotzebue Sound. This coastal area consists of unconsolidated sediments deposited during the Pleistocene and Holocene epochs, which are widespread throughout Alaska. The beach ridges of Sheshalik Spit and Cape Krusenstern are formed by the longshore drift of sediments. These sediments originate from rivers and eroded shorelines south of Cape Thompson, then move southward and eastward. The contributions are likely cumulative. Coarse and poorly sorted sediment is reduced to sand by the time it reaches Kivalina, about 68 miles (109 km) to the northwest. The gravel component of the Cape Krusenstern to Sheshalik Spit beach ridge complex is mostly derived from sources south of Kivalina. Over the past 3,500 years, the sediment supplied by coastal retreat between Kivalina and Krusenstern Lagoon may equal the quantity deposited in the Cape Krusenstern to Sheshalik Spit beach ridge complex during the same period.

In 1732, Russians Mikhail Gvozdev and Ivan Fedorov made the first European sighting of northern Alaska near present-day Wales from the ship Saint Gabriel. Although acknowledged on a few early maps, this event has been overshadowed by Vitus Bering‘s official discovery of Alaska in 1741. In 1778, Captain James Cook sailed along the coast as far north as Icy Cape, landing at several locations. The Russian Empire considered northern Alaska for expansion from Siberia. In 1785, Catherine II hired Joseph E. Billings, an able seaman on Cook’s third voyage, to explore northern Siberia and Alaska to establish a Russian land claim. By 1791, Billings had arrived in the Bering Sea, trading with various Iñupiat groups. By the early 1800s, furs were being sent to Russia by independent Iñupiat traders in northern Alaska and the Russian-American Company and its traders in southern Alaska. In 1818, an expedition led by Otto van Kotzebue departed Russia to search the Arctic for an all-water passage from the Pacific to the Atlantic. Although he did not find the passage, he explored much of the north coast of the Seward Peninsula and the bay now named after him. Several subsequent expeditions also failed to find the Northwest Passage. In 1825, as John Franklin prepared to explore the Arctic from east to west, the Royal Navy dispatched Frederick W. Beechey to the Bering Strait to assist if Franklin penetrated the Arctic ice. Although Franklin’s mission was not completed, Beechey’s voyage surpassed all previous expeditions in geographic discoveries and ethnographic observations. In July 1826, Beechey entered Kotzebue Sound aboard HMS Blossom and traded with several local villages.

Before 1900, the Iñupiat of northwestern Alaska lived in small, scattered communities of one or a few extended families. These groups migrated seasonally in pursuit of wild game. Residents along Norton and Kotzebue Sounds and the western tip of the Seward Peninsula relied on spring hunts for seals, whales, and walruses and fished at other times of the year. Inland peoples from the upper Kobuk River Valley and the Fish River on the Seward Peninsula exploited their geographic position to act as principal traders between Bering Sea tribes and those farther inland. Sheshalik hosted an annual trading fair that attracted more than 2,000 people from the region, including Siberia. This trading tradition continued with the arrival of European explorers and New England whalers. By the 1880s, the Bering Strait people had incorporated many Western goods into their daily lives. The allure of Western goods drew people from the upper Noatak and Kobuk valleys to work with whalers. In the late 1890s, up to half of Alaska’s Native population north of the strait was seasonally engaged in the whaling industry. However, this intensive activity quickly depleted the primary food source of the coastal Iñupiat diet. In 1890, Sheldon Jackson, a Presbyterian missionary and head of the U.S. Bureau of Education in Alaska, recruited missionaries who also served as teachers. When the agency built schools and stores along the Noatak, upper Kobuk, and Selawik rivers in 1907-08, people followed, establishing permanent villages such as Kotzebue, Wales, and Point Hope. This migration led to the abandonment of many coastal communities, including Sheshalik. Read more here and here. Explore more of Sheshalik Spit and Kotzebue Sound here: