Golovin is a community on the northern shore of Norton Sound in the Bering Sea, situated on a sand spit between Golovnin Lagoon to the north and Golovnin Bay to the south, about 71 miles (114 km) east of Nome and 24 miles (38 km) west-south-west of Elim, Alaska. Originally an Iñupiat village called Cheenik, it took its present name from Vice-Admiral Vasily M. Golovnin, after whom early Russian traders named the area. The community lies near the mouth of Cheenik Creek, mostly below 33 feet (10 m) elevation, though several newer developments, including an airport, occupy higher ground. Cheenik Creek begins at 850 feet (259 m) on the Seward Peninsula and flows south-west for 11 miles (18 km), draining a watershed of 18,064 acres (7,310 ha). The watershed comprises rocks from the Nome Complex intruded by the Kachauik pluton: granodiorite–quartz monzonite at higher elevations, gneissic monzonite on west-facing slopes and Quaternary sediments at lower elevations.
From 1807 to 1809 Golovnin commanded the sloop Diana on a round-the-world voyage to visit the Russian-American Company settlement at Sitka. In 1817 he commanded the frigate Kamchatka, tasked with surveying Alaska’s north-western coast. In 1842 Lieutenant Lavrenty Zagoskin was sent to Alaska to scout locations for trading posts and discovered the village and harbor at present-day Golovin. In 1890 John Dexter, an employee of the Omilak Mine about 30 miles (48 km) north-north-east of Golovin Bay, married an Iñupiat woman and established a trading post at Cheenik, becoming the local authority on prospecting on the Seward Peninsula. In 1893 the Mission Covenant of Sweden established a church and school in Cheenik, and later a mission about 8 miles (13 km) south-east of Cheenik at a reindeer station on the mainland near Carolyn Island. In 1898 Cheenik became a supply-relay point for the goldfields to the north: supplies were unloaded from ships at Cheenik and transported across Golovnin Lagoon and up the Fish River or Niukluk River to Council. Reindeer herding became integral to the missions in the 1900s; however, the Golovnin Bay mission was abandoned in 1904 and moved to Elim after severe storms. Today Golovin is a blended Iñupiat and Yup’ik village that maintains a subsistence lifestyle of fishing, hunting and gathering. The village is an important checkpoint on the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, about 65 miles (105 km) from the finish in Nome.
North-western Alaska coastal communities built near sea level are particularly vulnerable to flooding and erosion from storm surges caused by extratropical cyclones during autumn storm seasons. Golovin, situated near sea level on a sand spit, has been identified as one of the coastal communities threatened by flooding and erosion. Residents routinely use the spit beaches for travel and subsistence hunting and fishing. The beach adjacent to the Cheenik River mouth has also been mined for road-surface materials. The village experiences episodic flooding with a return interval of 5 to 10 years, and the spit can suffer complete overwash at a 50 to 100-year return interval. Though sediments are transported during these events, long-term effects appear minimal, suggesting that sediment transport is balanced under existing conditions of waves, currents and sea level, with neither erosion nor accretion dominating sediment dynamics. However, known effects of climate change—such as rising sea level, increased frequency and magnitude of storms, and longer periods of wave exposure due to loss of sea ice—could compromise the existing sediment balance. Read more here and here. Explore more of Golovin and Norton Sound here: