York, Alaska

York was a mining settlement in the U.S. state of Alaska during the late 19th- and early 20th-century.

The mining camp was located at the mouth of Anikovik River, at Cape York on the Seward Peninsula, about 80 miles (130 km) north-west of Nome and 45 miles (72 km) north-west of Port Clarence. Wales, the westernmost settlement on the mainland United States, is 15 miles (24 km) north-west of York at Cape Prince of Wales.[1]

In the spring of 1900, York promised to be a place of importance and a post office was established in April, but in the early fall, its population had been reduced to about 20–30. The settlement included a number of log cabins and half a dozen substantial frame buildings. It was a distributing point[clarification needed] for the region to the north, but during the stormy months of the fall, landing at York was difficult.[2] The post office was closed in 1902[3] and the settlement's entire population died during the influenza epidemic of 1918. The disease reached Wales from York where it killed 170 of Wales's 310 residents.[4][5]

  1. ^ Geological Survey (U.S.); Alfred Hulse Brooks; Arthur James Collier; Walter Curran Mendenhall; George Burr Richardson (1901). Reconnaissances in the Cape Nome and Norton Bay regions, Alaska, in 1900. Government Printing Office. pp. 69–. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  2. ^ Geological Survey (1901), p. 138
  3. ^ Baker, Marcus (1906). Geographic dictionary of Alaska (Public domain ed.). Govt. Print. Off. pp. 686–. Retrieved March 30, 2013.
  4. ^ Lynette Iezzoni's Influenza 1918: The Worst Epidemic In American History, pg 167.
  5. ^ "Ghost towns scattered across Alaska map | Geophysical Institute". www.gi.alaska.edu. Retrieved May 9, 2023.