Alaska Gazetteer
Saint Lawrence Island is a physical feature (island) in Nome (CA) Borough. The primary coordinates for Saint Lawrence Island places it within the 99769 ZIP Code delivery area.
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| Feature Name: | Saint Lawrence Island |
| Category: | Alaska physical, cultural and historic features |
| Feature Type: | Physical |
| Class: | Island |
| Description: | In the northern part of the Bering Sea, 126 mi SW of Nome, 120 mi S of Bering Strait. 90 miles long. 1,792 sq. mi. in size. |
| History: | "Discovered by Vitus Bering on Saint Lawrence Day, August 10, 1728 (Old Style (O.S.) calendar) and named by him. Of this, G. F. Muller (1761, pg. 3) wrote: ""They heard of an island which was said to lie somewhat farther, at no great distance from the continent; to this they gave the name of Saint Lawrence, on account of its being the 10th of August, that saint's day, when they passed by it, without observing anything upon it besides cottages of fishermen."" It was also called ""Sind"" on early Russian charts, for Lieutenant Sind (the name is actually Sindt or Synd and so the map reference might have been misinterpreted or unclear), who passed somewhere near it in 1766. Captain James Cook, Royal Navy (RN), passed east of this island in 1778 and west of it in 1779. Its eastern end he named ""Anderson Island"" for Dr. William Anderson, surgeon on His (Her) Majesty's Ship (HMS) Discovery, believing it to be a separate island. Later, according to Captain F. W. Beechey, Cook found that it was part of what the Russians called Saint Lawrence Island, but died before the correction was made in his published account. Cook named the main body of the island, ""Clerkes Island"" for Capt. Charles Clerke of the _Discovery_, and its western end, which he shows as another separate island, he calls ""Saint Laurence"" and ""Saint Lawrence,"" taking the name from Bering. According to Commodore Joseph Billings, the Chukchi natives of Siberia call this island ""E-oo-vogen"" which he spells on his chart ""Eivoogiena."" He also gives the variant names ""Clerke"" and ""Sinde."" G. A. Sarichev, who accompanied Billings in 1791-92, shows ""Saint Lawrence"" or ""Eivugen."" Lt. Otto yon Kotzebue gave the island's Eskimo name as ""Tschibocki,"" a name now preserved as ""Chibukak Point.""" |
| Borough: | Nome (CA) Borough |
| Latitude: | 63.5027770996 |
| Longitude: | -170.44694519 |
Variant (Nonofficial) Names for Saint Lawrence Island: Saint Lawrence Island.
Note that you do not have the right to enter private property without the owner's permission. You do have a right to access goverment property that is open to the general public. The GNIS Feature Detail Report for Saint Lawrence Island does not include property ownership information.
