The Kugruk River is a 60 mile long river in northwest Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. It is located on the Seward Peninsula

Seward Peninsula

The Seward Peninsula is a large peninsula on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It projects about into the Bering Sea between Norton Sound, the Bering Strait, the Chukchi Sea, and Kotzebue Sound, just below the Arctic Circle...

, and flows from the SE part of Imuruk Lake in a NE direction to Kugruk Lagoon, at Kotzebue Sound

Kotzebue Sound

Kotzebue Sound is an arm of the Chukchi Sea in the western region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is on the north side of the Seward Peninsula and bounded the east by the Baldwin Peninsula. It is long and wide....

, Chukchi Sea

Chukchi Sea

Chukchi Sea is a marginal sea of the Arctic Ocean. It is bounded on the west by the De Long Strait, off Wrangel Island, and in the east by Point Barrow, Alaska, beyond which lies the Beaufort Sea. The Bering Strait forms its southernmost limit and connects it to the Bering Sea and the Pacific...

 5.5 mi SE of Cape Deceit

Cape Deceit

Cape Deceit is a cape in Alaska. It is located in the Seward Peninsula on the Chukchi Sea coast.Cape Deceit extends into Kotzebue Sound, 2 mi. NW of Deering; Kotzebue-Kobuk Low.This cape's name was given in 1816 by Lt. Otto von Kotzebue...

, Kotzebue-Kobuk Low

Nome Census Area, Alaska

Nome Census Area is a census area located in the state of Alaska, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 9,196. It is part of the unorganized borough and therefore has no borough seat. Its largest community by far is the city of Nome....

.

Its Inuit

Inuit

The Inuit are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic regions of Canada , Denmark , Russia and the United States . Inuit means “the people” in the Inuktitut language...

 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

Mammoth

A mammoth is any species of the extinct genus Mammuthus. These proboscideans are members of Elephantidae, the family of elephants and mammoths, and close relatives of modern elephants. They were often equipped with long curved tusks and, in northern species, a covering of long hair...

 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

Kuzitrin River

The Kuzitrin River is a river found on the Seward Peninsula of Northwest Alaska. The river headwaters are at the Lost Jim Lava Flow in the central region of the peninsula, and flows 95 miles west into the Imuruk Basin, which eventually feeds the Bering Sea. Kuzitrin tribuatries include the...

 was changed to Kougarok River

Kougarok River

The Kougarok River is a river on the Seward Peninsula in Alaska. It is formed by a merger of smaller creeks in the area; the result is about 45 miles long. It flows into the Kuzitrin River, eventually emptying into the Bering Sea....

, 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.