Kokolik River

The Kokolik River is a stream, 200 miles (320 km) long, in the western North Slope of the U.S. state of Alaska.[3] It rises in the De Long Mountains of the western Brooks Range and flows generally north and northwest into the Kasegaluk Lagoon.[2] The river mouth is 1 mile (1.6 km) east of Point Lay, on the Chukchi Sea of the Arctic Ocean.[2]

Kokolik River
Location of the mouth of the Kokolik River in Alaska
Location
CountryUnited States
StateAlaska
BoroughNorth Slope
Physical characteristics
SourceDe Long Mountains
 • coordinates68°30′21″N 162°09′45″W
 • elevation2,631 ft (802 m)[1]
MouthKasegaluk Lagoon, Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean
 • location
1 mile (1.6 km) east of Point Lay
 • coordinates
69°46′15″N 162°59′48″W[2]
 • elevation
0 ft (0 m)[2]
Length200 mi (320 km)[3]

Its Inuit name, Kokolik, refers to the alpine bistort, an edible plant found in the region. A variant name, Kepizetka (qipigsatqaq), recorded on an Inuit map in the late 19th century, means "it twists" or "crooked".[2]

In the summer of 1977, a tundra fire, apparently caused by lightning, affected 17 square miles (44 km2) near the Kokolik River due east of Point Lay. Vegetation along the border of the National Petroleum Reserve burned during an exceptionally dry spell in the region. The site was the furthest north the Bureau of Land Management had ever fought a tundra fire.[4]

See also

References
  1. Derived by entering source coordinates in Google Earth.
  2. "Kokolik River". Geographic Names Information System. United States Geological Survey. January 1, 2000. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  3. Orth, Donald J.; United States Geological Survey (1971) [1967]. Dictionary of Alaska Place Names: Geological Survey Professional Paper 567 (PDF). University of Alaska Fairbanks. United States Government Printing Office. p. 537. Archived from the original (PDF) on October 17, 2013. Retrieved September 8, 2013.
  4. Hall, Dorothy K.; Brown, Jerry; Johnson, Larry (1978). "The 1977 Tundra Fire in the Kokolik River Area of Alaska". Arctic. Arctic Institute of North America. 31 (1): 54–58. doi:10.14430/arctic2639. Archived from the original on August 19, 2014. Retrieved September 8, 2013.



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