Cape Thompson is a headland on the Chukchi Sea coast of

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. It is located 26 miles (42 km) to the southeast of Point Hope, Arctic Slope. It is part of the Chukchi Sea unit of Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. Early

Inuit Inuit (singular: Inuk) are a group of culturally and historically similar Indigenous peoples traditionally inhabiting the Arctic and Subarctic regions of North America and Russia, including Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwe ...

names for this cape were "Eebrulikgorruk" and "Uivvaq", also spelled "Wevuk" or "Wevok." Cape Thompson was often referred to as "Uivvaq Qanittuq," meaning "near cape," as opposed to "Uivvaq Uŋasiktuq" ( Cape Lisburne) meaning "distant cape." The first recorded Europeans to sight this cape were

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n explorers Mikhail Vasiliev and Gleb Shishmaryov of the Imperial Russian Navy on the ships ''Otkrietie'' and ''Blagonamierennie''. Vasiliev and Shishmaryov named this headland Mys Rikord, after admiral Peter Ivanovich Rikord (1776–1855), who was Governor of

Kamchatka The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...

between 1817 and 1822. This cape was later renamed by Captain Frederick William Beechey of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...

, who wrote on August 2, 1826: ''"We closed with a high cape, which I named after Mr. Deas Thomson, one of the commissioners of the navy."'' In 1958 Cape Thompson was the proposed site for an artificial harbor to be dug using hydrogen bombs via Project Chariot.

References

Thompson Landforms of North Slope Borough, Alaska {{NorthSlopeAK-geo-stub