Uelkal (; Yupik: Валъӄалыӄ, lit. ''Whale Jaw''; Chukchi: , ''Valḳalḷʼan'') is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

('' selo'') in

Iultinsky District Iultinsky District (; Chukchi language, Chukchi: , ''Ivyltin rajon'') is an administrativeLaw #33-OZ and municipalLaw #149-OZ district (raion), one of the administrative divisions of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, six in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Ru ...

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka ( ; ), officially the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, is the easternmost federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia. It is an Autonomous okrugs of Russia, autonomous okrug situated in the Russian Far East, and shares a border wi ...

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 ...

. Population: a slight reduction on a 2003 estimate of 258, of whom 208 were indigenous people, which itself showed a slight increase, up from 202 the previous year. The village is located approximately away from the administrative centre of

Egvekinot Egvekinot (; Chukchi language, Chukchi: , ''Èrvyḳynnot'', lit. ''sharp, hard land'')Fute, p. 125 is an types of inhabited localities in Russia, urban locality (an urban-type settlement) and the administrative center of Iultinsky District in ...

,Red Cross of Chukotka
Iultinsky District
(Archived) at the western side of the mouth of

Kresta Bay Kresta Bay or Kresta Gulf (; ''Zaliv Kresta'') is a large bay of the Gulf of Anadyr on the southern coast of the Chukotka Peninsula, Russian Federation. Administratively the bay is part of the Iultinsky District of Chukotka. Geography The Krest ...

. Municipally, Uelkal is subordinated to Iultinsky Administrative District and incorporated as Uelkal Rural Settlement.

Geography

Uelkal is situated on the south side of Cape Annyualkal spit at the entrance to Kresta Bay, by the Bering Sea, 174 km from the District centre

. The village is the most western settlement in Russia in the western hemisphere and the most western Eskimo settlements in the world.

History

The village was founded in 1920 by settlers from Cape Chaplino. During World War II, this was the eastern stage on the

ALSIB ALSIB (or the Northern Trace) was the Soviet Union portion of the Alaska-Siberian air road receiving Lend-Lease aircraft from the Northwest Staging Route. Aircraft manufactured in the United States were flown over this route for World War II combat ...

Uelkal-

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yenisey, Yenisey River, and is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a p ...

route for US-made

lend-lease Lend-Lease, formally the Lend-Lease Act and introduced as An Act to Promote the Defense of the United States (),3,000 Hurricanes and >4,000 other aircraft) * 28 naval vessels: ** 1 Battleship. (HMS Royal Sovereign (05), HMS Royal Sovereign) * ...

warplanes to Russia. During the mid-1950s, the Central Intelligence Agency suspected that a major bomber staging base was being built at Uelkal capable of reaching United States, however the Soviets instead built the facility at

Anadyr Anadyr may refer to: *Anadyr (town), a town and the administrative center of Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia * Anadyr District * Anadyr Estuary * Anadyr (river), a river in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia * Anadyr Highlands * Anadyr Lowlands * A ...

Ugolny Airport Ugolny Airport () (also Leninka, Ugolnyye Kopi, Ugolnoye) is a mixed-use military and civil airfield in the Russian Far East located 11 km east of Anadyr (town), Anadyr, separated from the town by the waters of Anadyrsky Liman. The airfiel ...

to the south and the Uelkal airfield fell into decline. Until the early 2000s near the village acted as tropospheric intermediate relay station number 20/103, part of the "North" link (call sign – "Kazan"). As of 2002, it had 258 inhabitants, of whom 202 were indigenous people, though this has reduced significantly in the last decade, with 2014 estimates indicating a population of only 210.Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Territorial Branch of the

Federal State Statistics Service The Federal State Statistics Service (, abbreviated as Rosstat) is the governmental statistics agency in Russia. Since 2017, it is again part of the Ministry of Economic Development, having switched several times in the previous decades betw ...

Численность постоянного населения Чукотского автономного округа по муниципальным образованиям на 1 января 2014 года

Economy

The village has a

secondary school A secondary school, high school, or senior school, is an institution that provides secondary education. Some secondary schools provide both ''lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper secondary education'' (ages 14 to 18), i.e., b ...

, a medical assistant-midwife centre, a pharmacy, a communications centre, and a store. The main sources of livelihood for the residents of this town are hunting

seal Seal may refer to any of the following: Common uses * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, also called "true seal" ** Fur seal ** Eared seal * Seal ( ...

walrus The walrus (''Odobenus rosmarus'') is a large pinniped marine mammal with discontinuous distribution about the North Pole in the Arctic Ocean and subarctic seas of the Northern Hemisphere. It is the only extant species in the family Odobeni ...

, and

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully Aquatic animal, aquatic placental mammal, placental marine mammals. As an informal and Colloquialism, colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea ...

s, which is done as part of the municipal agricultural enterprise "Nanuk" (). In the village there is a high school, a kindergarten, a local hospital, pharmacy, home culture, communication center and shop as well as a rural folk club, the Chukchi-Eskimo group "Imlya", youth groups "Kiyagnyk" (lit. "Life") and "Avsinahak" (lit. "pups").

Transport

Uelkal is not connected to any other part of the world by road however, there is a small network of roads within the village including:Pochtovik Mail Delivery Service
Iultinsky District *улица Вальгиргина (Ulitsa Val′girgina) *улица Набережная (Ulitsa Naberezhnaya, lit. ''Quay Street'') *улица Тундровая (Ulitsa Tundrovnaya, lit. ''Tundra Street'') *улица Центральная (Ulitsa Tsentralnaya, lit. ''Central Street'')

Climate

Uelkal has a Continental

Subarctic The subarctic zone is a region in the Northern Hemisphere immediately south of the true Arctic, north of hemiboreal regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Fennoscandia, Northwestern Russia, Siberia, and the Cair ...

Boreal Boreal, northern, of the north. Derived from the name of the god of the north wind from Ancient Greek civilisation, Boreas (god), Boreas. It may also refer to: Climatology and geography *Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernand ...

(

taiga Taiga or tayga ( ; , ), also known as boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, and larches. The taiga, or boreal forest, is the world's largest land biome. In North A ...

) climate (''Dfc'').McKnight and Hess, pp.232–5

References

Notes

Sources

* * * *M Strogoff, P-C Brochet, and D. Auzia
''Petit Futé: Chukotka''
(2006). "Avant-Garde" Publishing House.

External links

Uelkal photo gallery
{{Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Rural localities in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug