Point Franklin is a barrier spit that, together with the Seahorse Islands, separates Peard Bay from the Chukchi Sea, about 54 miles (87 km) south-west of Utqiaġvik and 33 miles (53 km) north-east of Wainwright, Alaska. The spit extends 13 miles (21 km) north-east from the Arctic Coastal Plain and is the site of several whaling shipwrecks. The point was originally named Cape Franklin in 1826 by Captain Frederick W. Beechey after Sir John Franklin. Peard Bay was named after George Peard who was a first lieutenant on HMS Blossom. The Arctic Coastal Plain comprises unconsolidated Quaternary sediments overlying rocks that formed during the Cretaceous period, 145 million to 66 million years ago. The surface sediments are covered by tundra and permafrost with numerous streams and thaw lakes. The barrier spit comprises fine sand mixed with some coal that eroded from tundra bluffs and was transported by north-setting coastal currents. The Chukchi Sea is generally ice-covered from December to June; however, the area between Icy Cape and Point Barrow is known for a recurring polynya. Polynyas are areas of year-round open water or thin ice found at predictable locations in ice-covered regions. They form either because oceanic properties such as temperature and salinity prevent ice formation, or because winds cause ice divergence. These open-water areas in an otherwise frozen world attracted marine mammals such as walruses, seals and whales, and the Iñupiat and 19th century whalers who hunted them.

Peard Bay is a traditional hunting area for the Iñupiat, who have an ancient encampment called Tatchim Isua, meaning “end of the bay”, on the eastern shore. In 1825 Beechey was appointed to command HMS Blossom to explore the Bering Strait and proceed north to rendezvous with Franklin, who descended the Mackenzie River and travelled west exploring the Beaufort Sea coast. Beechey did not get far beyond Icy Cape owing to ice and shoal water. At Peard Bay they purchased a baidarka from a group of Iñupiat who were eager to trade, and under the command of Thomas Elson and William Smyth proceeded north along the coast and made it to the settlement of Nuvuk at Point Barrow. By the mid-19th century European Americans had started whaling in the western Arctic, a region that had not been commercially exploited. Largely disregarding the indigenous communities, who relied on the whales and walrus for food and sustaining cultural traditions, whaling ships arrived in the western Arctic in increasing numbers. Within two decades the bowhead whale population in this region was reduced by approximately two-thirds. Getting the valuable oil and baleen was extremely hazardous, and between 1850 and 1900 around 42 whaling ships were lost along this stretch of the Chukchi Sea coast. In 1957 an intermediate site of the Distant Early Warning Line was established at Peard Bay near Tatchim Isua. The station was crewed by five full-time staff who operated a radar system, tropospheric scatter-communication systems and an airstrip until the facility was abandoned in 1963.

Point Franklin was the site of a whaling disaster when a fleet of 33 American whaling ships was trapped in the Chukchi Sea ice and subsequently abandoned. In August 1871 the fleet was in the polynya near Wainwright when a stationary high-pressure weather system reversed the normal wind pattern and pushed the pack ice toward the Alaskan coast. Seven ships were able to escape to the south, but 33 others were trapped. By mid-September all 1,219 people aboard the ships evacuated in small whaleboats with a three-month supply of provisions, crossed 70 miles (110 km) of ocean and were eventually brought to safety. Wreckage from several ships was recently found between Point Franklin and Wainwright. In 1876 another 20 whaling vessels were enticed to proceed north in the polynya when the wind shifted, trapping all but one ship in ice 20 miles (32 km) offshore. The captains decided to abandon the ships and head for shore, and around 300 men, dragging whaleboats and as much of the ships’ provisions as they could, proceeded to Point Barrow. In 1897 eight more whaling ships were trapped in ice near Point Barrow, and the owners were concerned that the 265 crew would starve during the winter. They appealed to President William McKinley to send a relief expedition, and the US Revenue Cutter Bear was dispatched, but the rescue was halted at Cape Vancouver by ice. Captain Michael A. Healy then sent an overland party to trek 1,500 miles (2,400 km) north, picking up a herd of reindeer at Teller on the way, and reached the stranded whalers three months later. These events decimated the whaling fleet and contributed to the subsequent demise of the industry. Read more here and here. Explore more of Point Franklin and Peard Bay here: