Elephant Point ( Iñupiaq: ''Siŋik'') is a headland in

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 w ...

Chukchi Sea Chukchi Sea ( rus, Чуко́тское мо́ре, r=Chukotskoye more, p=tɕʊˈkotskəjə ˈmorʲɪ), sometimes referred to as the Chuuk Sea, Chukotsk Sea or the Sea of Chukotsk, is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west b ...

Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska Northwest Arctic Borough is a borough located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census, the population was 7,793, up from 7,523 in 2010. The borough seat is Kotzebue. The borough was formed on June 2, 1986. Geography According to the ...

, United States. It extends northeast into

Eschscholtz Bay Eschscholtz Bay is an arm of Kotzebue Sound, on the Chukchi Sea-facing coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is up to eleven miles wide, and separated from the outer Kotzebue Sond by Choris Peninsula and Chamisso Island. It is located on the north ...

, southeast of Selawik. This

headland A headland, also known as a head, is a coastal landform, a point of land usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends into a body of water. It is a type of promontory. A headland of considerable size often is called a cape.Whittow, John ...

was named in 1826 by

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against F ...

Captain

Frederick William Beechey Frederick William Beechey (17 February 1796 – 29 November 1856) was an English naval officer, artist, explorer, hydrographer and writer. Life and career He was the son of two painters, Sir William Beechey, RA and his second wife, Anne ...

who wrote in his log: ''"I bestowed the name of Elephant upon the point, to mark its vicinity to the place where the fossils (bones of elephants) were found."'' Those bones probably belonged to

mammoths A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks and, ...

. A populated place named Elephant Point lies nearby.

Demographics

Elephant Point appeared once on the 1950 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It was also known as Buckland Post Office. Residents from Buckland relocated from there for a brief period before returning to that village.

References

Elephant Point Elephant Point is a small predominantly ice-free promontory projecting 2 km into Bransfield Strait at the south extremity of the west half of Livingston Island in the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica. The point forms the southwest side ...

Landforms of Northwest Arctic Borough, Alaska {{NorthwestArcticAK-geo-stub