Shishmaref, Alaska
city and village in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States
Shishmaref ( SHISH-mə-ref; Inupiaq: Qigiqtaq, IPA: [qixiqtaq] or Kigiqtaq; Russian: Шишмарёв, IPA: [ʂɨʂmɐˈrʲɵf]) is a city in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. It is located on Sarichef Island in the Chukchi Sea, just north of the Bering Strait and five miles from the mainland. Shishmaref lies within the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve. As of the 2020 census, Shishmaref had a population of 576.
Etymology
Shishmaryov is probably a variant of Russian Shyshmánov from Turkic šyšman ‘fat’, but there is also Old Russian šiš ‘rogue, knave’ and Maréev ‘(son of) marine’. The name was assigned in 1821 to a nearby inlet by explorer Otto von Kotzebue of the Russian Imperial Marine, in honor of a member of his expedition, the commander Gleb S. Shishmaryov (Глеб Семёнович Шишмарёв).
In the Iñupiaq language, Qigiqtaq (formally Ḳigiḳtaḳ) means ‘island’. The water to the south of it is called Qigiqtam Imaġrua ‘waters of Qikiqtaq’, shown in the map of the area in the Bering Land Bridge National Preserve.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 7.3 square miles (19 km2), of which, 2.8 square miles (7.3 km2) of it is land and 4.5 square miles (12 km2) of it (61.62%) is water.
Shishmaref was named in 1821 by explorer Lt.
The public source identifies “Shishmaref, Alaska” as city and village in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Shishmaref, Alaska and city.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Shishmaref, Alaska”, the useful work is to connect “city and village in the Nome Census Area, Alaska, United States” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The strongest evidence will usually combine a dated visual record with documents produced by the authority responsible for the place. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 14, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q79723. VIAF identifies the subject as 146609432. The Library of Congress control number is n82167095. Authority coordinates are 66.256, -166.072. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020 and 1821.
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This entry incorporates text from “Shishmaref, Alaska” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.