Uelkal (russian: Уэлькаль;

Yupik Yupik may refer to: * Yupik peoples, a group of indigenous peoples of Alaska and the Russian Far East * Yupik languages, a group of Eskimo-Aleut languages Yupꞌik (with the apostrophe) may refer to: * Yup'ik people The Yup'ik or Yupiaq (sg ...

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

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

('' selo'') in

Iultinsky District Iultinsky District (russian: Иу́льтинский райо́н; Chukchi: , ''Ivyltin rajon'') is an administrativeLaw #33-OZ and municipalLaw #149-OZ district (raion), one of the six in Chukotka Autonomous Okrug, Russia. It is located in the ...

Chukotka Autonomous Okrug Chukotka (russian: Чуко́тка), officially the Chukotka Autonomous Okrug,, ''Čukotkakèn avtonomnykèn okrug'', is the easternmost federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia. It is an autonomous okrug situated in the Russian ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia, Northern Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the ...

. 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 (russian: Эгвекино́т; 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 ce ...

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

Kresta Bay Kresta Bay or Kresta Gulf (russian: Залив Креста; ''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 ...

. 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 ( ; rus, Красноя́рск, a=Ru-Красноярск2.ogg, p=krəsnɐˈjarsk) (in semantic translation - Red Ravine City) is the largest city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yeni ...

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 (), was a policy under which the United States supplied the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and other Allied nations with food, oil, ...

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 *Operati ...

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

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 (russian: Федеральная служба государственной статистики (Росстат), ''Federal'naya sluzhba gosudarstvennoi statistiki (Rosstat)'') is the governmental statistics ...

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

Economy

The village has a

secondary school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' secondary education, lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) ...

, 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, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impr ...

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

, and

whale Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. As an informal and colloquial grouping, they correspond to large members of the infraorder Cetacea, i.e. all cetaceans apart from dolphins and ...

s, which is done as part of the municipal agricultural enterprise "Nanuk" (russian: Нанук). 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 humid continental regions and covering much of Alaska, Canada, Iceland, the north of Scandinavia, Siberia, and the Cairngorms. Generally, ...

Boreal Boreal may refer to: Climatology and geography *Boreal (age), the first climatic phase of the Blytt-Sernander sequence of northern Europe, during the Holocene epoch *Boreal climate, a climate characterized by long winters and short, cool to mild ...

(

taiga Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruce ...

) 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