Information About

Russian Mission

Quick Facts

Open in The Map Russian Mission on The Map

Location

61 ° 47' 6" N,
161 ° 19' 13.001" W

Region

Wade Hampton (CA)

Elevation

112 ft (34.14 m)

Russian Mission in Detail.

About

village, on right bank of Yukon River 25 mi. SE of Marshall, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta.

History

The Eskimo name for this village was reported by Lieutenant L. A. Zagoskin, Imperial Russian Navy (IRN), in 1843 and published by P. Tikhmeniev, in 1861, as "S(elo) Ikogmyut," possibly meaning "people of the point." It is listed by I. Petroff in the 1880 census as "Ikogmute," with 143 inhabitants; the 1890 Census lists 140. Baker (1906, p. 321), lists Ikogmute", with a population of 350 Eskimo in 1902. This village was the location of a Russian Orthodox Mission (sometimes called "Pokrovskaya Mission)," established in 1851, the first in the interior of Alaska (Oswalt, 1963, p. 6). The designation "Russian Mission" supplanted the Eskimo name about 1900. Russian Mission was incorporated as a city on October 28, 1970.