Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Chuathbaluk, AK

Chuathbaluk is a city in Bethel Census Area, Alaska, on the Kuskokwim River about 100 miles upstream from Bethel, with the Russian Mountains, a small circular mountain range, standing just to the north.

Its Central Yupik name is Curarpalek, meaning 'the hills where the big blueberries grow,' and the village took the name Chuathbaluk in the 1960s after long being called Little Russian Mission, a name that caused confusion with Russian Mission on the Yukon.

Deg Hit'an Athabascan people had summer fish camps in the area during the 19th century, and the Russian Orthodox Church built the St. Sergius Mission there by 1894, drawing residents of Kukuktuk from 20 miles downriver.

Much of the village was lost in an influenza epidemic in 1900, and by 1929 the site was deserted, although Russian Orthodox members continued to hold services at the mission.

The mission was resettled in 1954 by the Crow Village Sam Phillips family from Crow Village, later joined by residents of Aniak and Crooked Creek, the church was rebuilt in the late 1950s, and a state school opened in the 1960s.

Chuathbaluk first appeared on the census in 1970 as an unincorporated village and formally incorporated as a city in 1975.

At the 2020 census Chuathbaluk had a population of 104, down from 118 in 2010, with 33 households and a median age of 26.0 years.

In 2020, 88.5 percent of residents were American Indian and Alaska Native, and every resident lived in a rural area.

The city covers about six square miles according to the 2020 Gazetteer, with about a third of that area water, and its ZIP code is 99557.

The Kuspuk School District operates the K-12 Crow Village Sam School in Chuathbaluk.