Gambell Rural Village St Lawrence Island Alaska

The easiest way for the local people of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska, USA to get around this rural village is by walking or riding all-terrain vehicles.

The rural village of Gambell is located on St. Lawrence Island in Alaska, USA with a population of around 650. The main street in the village is made up of gravel which is mostly traveled by the local people on foot or by riding all-terrain vehicles.

St. Lawrence Island and Gambell is also referred to as Sivuqaq in the Yupik language and for the last 2,000 years, Alaskan Yup'ik and Siberian Yupik people have resided in this village. In the 1700's and 1800's, the population of Gambell was about 4,000 but between 1878 and 1880, the village was threatened with a major food shortage. Many of those who did not die from starvation, left the island leaving mainly Siberian Yupik people behind.

Nellie Gambell moved to the village in 1894 and began her new job as a schoolteacher but she became very ill in 1897-1898 and had to be hospitalized elsewhere. Later in 1898, aboard a ship which sank during a ferocious storm, Nellie Gambell never returned to this rural area and the village was renamed Gambell in her honor.

The buildings along the main street of Gambell are fairly old looking but life in the village is very peaceful. Many of the local people work in the carving business, using walrus ivory as their main piece of material to create their masterpieces. Gambell has a high reputation for having some of the most talented ivory carvers thorughout the world.

Alaska. Bering Sea, St Lawrence Island, Gambell, main street where local Eskimos ride all-terrain vehicles.

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