Cape Thompson facts for kids

Cape Thompson is a piece of land that sticks out into the Chukchi Sea on the coast of Alaska. It is located about 26 miles (42 km) southeast of Point Hope, in the Arctic part of Alaska. This area is also part of a special wildlife protection zone called the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.

Ancient Names for Cape Thompson

Long ago, the Inuit people, who are the native people of this region, had different names for this cape. They called it "Eebrulikgorruk" and "Uivvaq". Sometimes "Uivvaq" was spelled "Wevuk" or "Wevok."

The Inuit often called this place "Uivvaq Qanittuq," which means "near cape." This helped them tell it apart from another place, Cape Lisburne, which they called "Uivvaq Uŋasiktuq," meaning "distant cape."

European Explorers Arrive

The first Europeans known to see Cape Thompson were Russian explorers Mikhail Vasiliev and Gleb Shishmaryov. They were part of the Imperial Russian Navy and sailed on ships named Otkrietie and Blagonamierennie.

In their time, Vasiliev and Shishmaryov named this headland Mys Rikord. They chose this name to honor Admiral Peter Ivanovich Rikord. He was an important naval officer who served as the Governor of Kamchatka (a region in Russia) from 1817 to 1822.

Renamed by the British

Later, in 1826, a British naval officer named Captain Frederick William Beechey arrived. He was from the Royal Navy. On August 2, 1826, Captain Beechey decided to rename the cape.

He wrote that he named it after "Mr. Deas Thomson, one of the commissioners of the navy." This is how the cape got its current name, Cape Thompson.

Project Chariot

In 1958, Cape Thompson was considered for a special project called Project Chariot. The idea was to dig a large artificial harbor using powerful hydrogen bombs. However, this project was never carried out at Cape Thompson.