Emergency Crime Scene and Biohazard Cleanup in Unalakleet, AK

Unalakleet is a city in Nome Census Area, on Norton Sound at the mouth of the Unalakleet River, 148 miles southeast of Nome and 395 miles northwest of Anchorage.

Unalakleet's name is an adaptation of the Inupiaq word Una-la-thliq, meaning from the southern side; it is also known in Inupiaq as Ungalaqliq and in Central Yupik as Ungalaqliit.

Unalakleet has long been a major trade center between the Athabascan people of the interior and the Inupiat of the coast, sitting at the Norton Sound end of the Unalakleet-Kaltag Portage, an important winter travel route to the Yukon River.

The Russian-American Company built a trading post at Unalakleet in the 1830s, and in 1898 the United States brought Sami reindeer herders from Lapland to Unalakleet to teach herding practices.

Unalakleet was formally incorporated as a city in 1974.

At the 2020 census, Unalakleet had a population of 765, with 242 households, up from 688 in 2010.

Unalakleet is known across Alaska for its salmon and king crab harvests, and residents rely heavily on caribou, ptarmigan, oogruk, or bearded seal, and various salmon species for much of their diet.

Unalakleet is the first checkpoint on Norton Sound in the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, and the first musher to reach it each year receives the Gold Coast Award, which includes 2,500 dollars in gold nuggets.

Unalakleet also plays an important role in the Iron Dog snowmobile race.

The district office of the Bering Strait School District has been located in Unalakleet since 1983, serving fifteen village schools across about 75,000 square miles.