Bering Land Bridge National Preserve | |
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IUCN category V (protected landscape/seascape) | |
![]() Serpentine Tors | |
Location | Seward Peninsula, Alaska, United States |
Nearest city | Kotzebue, Alaska |
Coordinates | 65°50′N 164°10′W / 65.833°N 164.167°W |
Area | 2,697,391 acres (10,915.95 km2)[1] |
Created | 1 December 1978 |
Visitors | 2,642 (in 2018)[2] |
Governing body | National Park Service |
Website | Bering Land Bridge National Preserve |
The Bering Land Bridge National Preserve is one of the most remote Protected areas of the United States, located on the Seward Peninsula.[3] The National Preserve protects a remnant of the Bering Land Bridge that connected Asia with North America more than 13,000 years ago during the Pleistocene ice age.[4] The majority of this land bridge now lies beneath the waters of the Chukchi and Bering Seas.[5] During the glacial epoch this bridge was a migration route for people, animals, and plants whenever ocean levels fell enough to expose the land bridge.[5] Archeologists disagree[6] whether it was across this Bering Land Bridge, also called Beringia, that humans first migrated from Asia to populate the Americas,[5][7] or whether it was via a coastal route.[8]
Bering Land Bridge National Monument was established in 1978 by Presidential proclamation under the authority of the Antiquities Act.[9] The designation was modified in 1980 to a national preserve with the passage of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), which would allow both subsistence hunting by local residents and sport hunting.[10] The preserve includes significant archaeological sites and a variety of geological features.[10] The preserve has seen recent volcanic activity, with lava flows and lake-filled maars.[3][10] Hot springs are a popular destination for tourists.[11]