Alaska
Register
Advertisement

POPULATION: 2397 (2006)

LOCATION: Northern Bristol Bay, at the confluence of the Wood and Nushagak Rivers, 327 miles southwest of Anchorage.

DESCRIPTION: Summer temperatures typically range from 37 to 66 degrees Fahrenheit. Average winter temperatures are from 4 to 30 degrees Fahrenheit.

There are 2 schools, attended by 526 students. Health care services are provided by Kanakanak Hospital/PHS.

A State-owned airport provides a 6,404' long paved runway and Flight Service Station, with regular jet flights from Anchorage. A seaplane base, owned by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, is 3 miles west. A heliport is available at Kanakanak Hospital. The city operates a small boat harbor.

Dillingham serves the economic, transportation, and public service needs for western Bristol Bay. Commercial fishing, fish processing, cold storage, and fishing industry support are the area's major industries. Subsistence activities include trapping of beaver, otter, mink, lynx and fox for cash income. Salmon, grayling, pike, moose, bear, caribou, and berries are also harvested.

HISTORY: The Dillingham area was inhabited by both Eskimos and Athabascans and became a trade center when Russians erected the Alexandrovski Redoubt (Post) in 1818. The community was known as Nushagak by 1837, when a Russian Orthodox mission was established. In 1881 the U.S. Signal Corps established a meteorological station at Nushagak. In 1884 the first of several salmon canneries was constructed by Arctic Packing Co. The 1918-19 influenza epidemic struck the region, and left no more than 500 survivors. The Dillingham townsite was first surveyed in 1947. The City was incorporated in 1963.

source: Alaska Community Database

Advertisement