Point Hope is a landhead in the U.S. state

U.S. state

A U.S. state is any one of the 50 federated states of the United States of America that share sovereignty with the federal government. Because of this shared sovereignty, an American is a citizen both of the federal entity and of his or her state of domicile. Four states use the official title of...

 of 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...

, located at the western tip of the Lisburne Peninsula

Lisburne Peninsula

The Lisburne Peninsula is a peninsula jutting out into the Chukchi Sea on the western coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located at the westernmost point of the North Slope Borough. It is roughly trapezoid-shaped, having two points, the northwestern one being Cape Lisburne and the...

. It lies on the 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...

 coast, 40 miles southwest of Cape Lisburne, Arctic Slope at 68°20′27"N 166°50′00"W (68.347052, -166.762917). The city of Point Hope is located on the foreland.

The 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 for this cape was Tikarakh or Tikiqaq commonly spelled "Tiagara," meaning "forefinger".

The first recorded Europeans to sight this cape were Russian

Russians

The Russian people are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Russia, speaking the Russian language and primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries....

 explorers Mikhail Vasiliev

Ensign Mikhail Vasiliev

Mikhail Nikolayevich Vasilyev was a Russian explorer and vice admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. He is reputed for having surveyed the then little-known coast of Alaska as navigator. Vasiliev was sent by the Russian Imperial Hydrographic Service in 1819 to explore the northern parts of the...

 and Gleb Shishmaryov

Gleb Shishmaryov

Gleb Semyonovich Shishmaryov was a rear admiral of the Imperial Russian Navy. He is reputed for having surveyed the then little-known coast of Alaska as navigator...

 of the Imperial Russian Navy

Imperial Russian Navy

The Imperial Russian Navy refers to the Tsarist fleets prior to the February Revolution.-First Romanovs:Under Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich, construction of the first three-masted ship, actually built within Russia, was completed in 1636. It was built in Balakhna by Danish shipbuilders from Holstein...

 on the ships Otkrietie and Blagonamierennie. Vasiliev and Shishmaryov named the headland Mys Golovnina, after Vice Admiral Vasily Golovnin

Vasily Golovnin

Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin .-Early life and career:Vasily Mikhailovich Golovnin was born in April 1776, in the village of Gulyniki in Ryazan Oblast, on his father's country estate. Both his father and grandfather had served in the Russian military as officers in the elite Preobrazhensky...

 (1776–1831).

This cape was later renamed by Captain Frederick William Beechey

Frederick William Beechey

Frederick William Beechey was an English naval officer and geographer. He was the son of Sir William Beechey, RA., and was born in London.-Career:...

 of the Royal Navy

Royal Navy

The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...

, who wrote on August 2, 1826: "I named it Point Hope in compliment to Sir William Johnstone Hope

William Johnstone Hope

Vice Admiral Sir William Johnstone Hope, GCB was a prominent and controversial British Royal Navy officer and politician in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century Britain, whose career experienced fleet actions, disputes with royalty, party politics and entry to both Russian and British...

". According to Archdeacon Stuck Sir William Hope hailed from a "well-known house long connected with the sea".

External links

• USGS