Kugruk River

The Kugruk River is a 60 mile long river in northwest Alaska. It is located on the Seward Peninsula, and flows from the SE part of Imuruk Lake in a NE direction to Kugruk Lagoon, at Kotzebue Sound, Chukchi Sea 5.5 mi SE of Cape Deceit, Kotzebue-Kobuk Low. [ [http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=108:3:15845223094965297813::NO::P3_FID:1413392 Detail ] ]

Its Inuit name was reported in 1899 as "Koogroog" by Schrader and Brooks (1900, map 3) USGS. This appears to be the stream that Petroff in 1880 named "Mammoth" "from the occurrence of Mammoth bones in the vicinity" (Baker, 1906, p. 424). Reported as "Swan River" in 1901 by D. L. Reaburn (in Mendenhall, 1902, pl. 42), USGS.

In 1904, after USGS had completed reconnaissance mapping of Seward Peninsula, attention was called to the fact that three major rivers on the peninsula were named "Kugruk." Action was then taken to change these names. The above river was retained as Kugruk since that is the way it was used in court records. The Kugruk River which flows to the Kuzitrin River was changed to Kougarok River, because as A. J. Collier, USGS, stated in a letter, "it has always been pronounced locally as "Koogarok", and so appears on all claim notices.

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