St Nicholas Orthodox Church

Located on Upper Cook Inlet is the Athabascan Indian village of Tyonek. It became a major disembarkment point for goods and prospectors during the goldrush in the 1880s. The village, devasted by smallpox between 1836 and 1840, was hard hit by a flu epidemic in 1918-19, leaving few native survivors. After flooding in the early 1930s the settlement moved to the top of a bluff. Residents hunt and fish for salmon, moose, beluga whale and waterfowl. About a third of the residents do commercial fishing and recreational fishing and hunting is growing. Tyonek is only accessible by air or sea. The church was established in 1891.