Scammon Bay () is a city in

Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska Kusilvak Census Area, formerly known as Wade Hampton Census Area, is a census area located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census, the population was 8,368, up from 7,459 in 2010. It is part of the Unorganized Borough and therefo ...

, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 474, up from 465 in 2000.

Etymology

It is named after

Charles Melville Scammon Charles Melville Scammon (1825–1911) was a 19th-century whaleman, naturalist, and author. He was the first to hunt the gray whales of both Laguna Ojo de Liebre and San Ignacio Lagoon, the former also known as "Scammon's Lagoon" after him. In ...

Chief of Marine of the Western Union Telegraph Expedition by

William Healey Dall William Healey Dall (August 21, 1845 – March 27, 1927) was an American natural history, naturalist, a prominent Malacology, malacologist, and one of the earliest scientific explorers of interior Alaska. He described many mollusks of the Pacifi ...

in 1870. A local dish was also named after Scammon, which is a mixture of

scrambled eggs Scrambled eggs is a dish made from eggs (usually chicken eggs), where the whites and yolks have been stirred, whipped, or beaten together (typically with salt, butter or oil, and sometimes water or milk, or other ingredients), then heated so ...

and

salmon Salmon (; : salmon) are any of several list of commercially important fish species, commercially important species of euryhaline ray-finned fish from the genera ''Salmo'' and ''Oncorhynchus'' of the family (biology), family Salmonidae, native ...

, taking advantage of the abundance of the fish in the local waters. Popular

folk etymology Folk etymology – also known as (generative) popular etymology, analogical reformation, (morphological) reanalysis and etymological reinterpretation – is a change in a word or phrase resulting from the replacement of an unfamiliar form by a mo ...

says that scammon is a

portmanteau In linguistics, a blend—also known as a blend word, lexical blend, or portmanteau—is a word formed by combining the meanings, and parts of the sounds, of two or more words together.

of "scrambled salmon", however that is incorrect as the name of the dish happened after the town was named.

Geography

According to the

United States Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau, officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the Federal statistical system, U.S. federal statistical system, responsible for producing data about the American people and American economy, econ ...

, the city has a total area of , all of it land.

Demographics

Scammon Bay first appeared on the 1940 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It formally incorporated in 1967. As of the census of 2000, there were 465 people, 96 households, and 84 families residing in the city. The population density was . There were 114 housing units at an average density of . The racial makeup of the city was 1.94%

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no chroma). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully (or almost fully) reflect and scatter all the visible wa ...

, 0.22%

Black Black is a color that results from the absence or complete absorption of visible light. It is an achromatic color, without chroma, like white and grey. It is often used symbolically or figuratively to represent darkness.Eva Heller, ''P ...

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

, 96.13% Native American, 0.22%

Pacific Islander Pacific Islanders, Pasifika, Pasefika, Pacificans, or rarely Pacificers are the peoples of the list of islands in the Pacific Ocean, Pacific Islands. As an ethnic group, ethnic/race (human categorization), racial term, it is used to describe th ...

, 0.22% from other races, and 1.29% from two or more races. 0.22% of the population were

Hispanic The term Hispanic () are people, Spanish culture, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, Hispanic and Latino Americans, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an Ethnici ...

or Latino of any race. There were 96 households, out of which 66.7% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 56.3% were married couples living together, 19.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 12.5% were non-families. 12.5% of all households were made up of individuals, and 1.0% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 4.84 and the average family size was 5.25. In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 49.5% under the age of 18, 8.8% from 18 to 24, 24.5% from 25 to 44, 13.3% from 45 to 64, and 3.9% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 18 years. For every 100 females, there were 94.6 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $25,625, and the median income for a family was $25,938. Males had a median income of $36,875 versus $13,750 for females. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or average income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. In many countries, per capita income is determined using regular population surveys, such ...

for the city was $7,719. About 30.2% of families and 37.4% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line, or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for ...

, including 49.0% of those under age 18 and none of those age 65 or over.

Education

K-12 students attend Scammon Bay School, operated by the

Lower Yukon School District Lower Yukon School District is a school district headquartered in Mountain Village, Alaska, serving the Kusilvak Census Area. As of the 2017-18 school year, it has 1,998 students across 10 schools. 91% are American Indian or Alaska Native and 5 ...

References

{{Authority control Cities in Alaska Cities in Kusilvak Census Area, Alaska Populated coastal places in Alaska on the Pacific Ocean