The Baird Mountains are a mountain range located northeast of the

Kotzebue Sound Kotzebue Sound (russian: Залив Коцебу) is an arm of the Chukchi Sea in the western region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is on the north side of the Seward Peninsula and bounded on the east by the Baldwin Peninsula. It is long and wi ...

, in between the Kobuk and

Noatak River The Noatak River ( ik, Nuataam Kuuŋa) is a river in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Alaska. Description The Noatak River's headwaters are on the north flank of Mount Igikpak in the Schwatka Mountains of the Brooks Range in the Gate ...

s in Alaska. The range was named after Smithsonian Institution Secretary

Spencer F. Baird Spencer Fullerton Baird (; February 3, 1823 – August 19, 1887) was an American naturalist, ornithologist, ichthyologist, herpetologist, and museum curator. Baird was the first curator to be named at the Smithsonian Institution. He eventuall ...

Geographical setting

The Baird Mountains are located at in the Western Brooks mountain range in northwestern Alaska, consisting of 5,600 square miles (14,500 square kilometers). The mountains are approximately sixty miles (100 kilometers) northeast of the town of Kotzebue, Alaska. Although the mountains seem much greater in size due to their closeness to the rivers, they are not very large when compared with the other Alaskan mountains that have elevations from 1,000 to 4,500 feet.Anderson, Douglas D.; Bane, Ray; Nelson, Richard K.; Anderson, Wanni W.; Sheldon, Nita; ''Kuuvanmiit Subsistence: Traditional Eskimo Life in the Latter Twentieth Century'', (Washington: National Park Service, 1977) The Baird Mountains have an elevation that reaches to approximately 3,000 feet (900 m), with its highest peak at Mount Angayukaqsraq, which measures at 4,700 ft (1,433 m).Baird Mountains
, ''Peakbagger.com.'' 11 January 2004. Retrieved 17 February 2011.

Human history

The Kuuvanmiit Eskimos, a branch of the Iñupiat Eskimos who have resided among polar regions from Alaska to Greenland, have lived in the five villages along the

Kobuk River The Kobuk River (''Kuuvak'' in Iñupiaq) (also Kooak, Kowak, Kubuk, Kuvuk, or Putnam) is a river located in the Arctic region of northwestern Alaska in the United States. It is approximately long. Draining a basin with an area of ,Brabets, T.P. ...

in the Baird Mountains region for thousands of years. They are

hunter-gatherers A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fungi, ...

and are amongst the few people who continue to live by such a lifestyle in North America. The

Jade Mountains The Jade Mountains are a small offshoot range of the larger Baird Mountain Range within the greater Brooks Range in Alaska. They extend 11 miles northwest to southeast, and are 4 miles wide. They run along the eastern border of Kobuk Valley Nat ...

within the Baird Range have historically been an important source of minerals to the Iñupiaq people. Pre-contact, jade was one of the strongest materials available and was used in the making of a number of necessary items, including tools, weaponry, knives, and beads.

Ecology and climate

The climate of the Baird Mountains is mostly like that of the rest of Alaska. Since the Pacific Ocean is near the Baird Mountains, the ocean greatly influences and enhances the temperature extremities. Winter lasts approximately five months, from November to March, during which the temperature is near or below 0 °F. The temperature can drop as low as -60 °F to -70 °F, and it is not uncommon for cold spells of -40 °F to -50 °F to last from one to three weeks. The level of snowfall can reach approximately 100 inches in the mountains to about 45 inches in lower elevations. Gale winds and snow from storms that blow in from the coast interrupt this below-freezing period, causing temperatures to rise from 0 °F to 20 °F or higher. The other extremity consists of summer, which only lasts for three months, from June to August. Precipitation is heaviest during the summer, bringing warmer temperatures along with common convective showers, in which the intensity of the rain quickly changes. Temperatures range from as low as c. 35 °F to as high as 90 °F, averaging from about 50 °F to 60 °F. Spring and autumn come and go rather quickly, lingering for only six to eight weeks. Daylight periods change as the seasons change. From May to August, darkness does not linger for long. Instead of rising or setting, the sun circles just above the horizon, turning to darkness only for a few hours when the sun circles behind the mountains. During the quick seasons of spring and autumn, the length of daylight changes by six to eight minutes each day.

Flora

The vegetation in the Baird Mountains is surprisingly varied for an area just above the Arctic Circle, and over 360 plant species are endemic. A network of different patterns of forests, tundra and plants lining the coasts vary depending on their elevation, climate, soil and fire history.

References

{{Authority control Brooks Range Mountains of Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska