The Kougarok (Koo-gah-rok) River (''Kuuguraq'' in Inupiaq, lit. ''little river'') is a

river A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wate ...

on the

Seward Peninsula The Seward Peninsula is a large peninsula on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska whose westernmost point is Cape Prince of Wales. The peninsula projects about into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi S ...

in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

. Formed by the merger of the two smaller streams Macklin Creek and Washington Creek, the

main stem In hydrology, a mainstem (or trunk) is "the primary downstream segment of a river, as contrasted to its tributaries". Water enters the mainstem from the river's drainage basin, the land area through which the mainstem and its tributaries flow.. A ...

is about long, flowing generally south from near Taylor Airport. It flows into the

Kuzitrin River The Kuzitrin River (''Kurritqiun'' in Inupiaq) is a stream, long, on the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. It begins at Kuzitrin Lake in the central region of the peninsula and flows west into the Imuruk Basin. The basin drains via ...

, which flows west into the

Imuruk Basin The Imuruk Basin (''Imaġruk'' or ''Narvaġruk'' in Iñupiaq) is an approximately , long shallow estuary located on the Seward Peninsula in the U.S. state of Alaska. The estuary's drainage basin covers about one quarter of the peninsula. The bas ...

, connected to the bay of

Port Clarence Port Clarence is a small village now within the borough of Stockton-on-Tees and ceremonial county of County Durham, England. It is situated on the north bank of the River Tees, and hosts the northern end of the Middlesbrough Transporter Bridge. ...

on the

Bering Sea The Bering Sea (, ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasses on Earth: Eurasia and The Ameri ...

. In 1900 the river was reported under the same name as

Kugruk River The Kugruk River is a stream, long, in the northwestern part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is the largest tributary of the Kuzitrin River. It begins near Imuruk Lake on the Seward Peninsula and flows generally north to Kugruk Lagoon, at Kotzeb ...

, this was later changed. The river drew gold miners in the early 1900s, though development slowed after

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The Nome-Taylor Highway follows the river for much of its course.

References

Rivers of Nome Census Area, Alaska Rivers of the Seward Peninsula Rivers of Alaska Rivers of Unorganized Borough, Alaska {{Alaska-river-stub

See also

References