Teller, Alaska
Teller
Tala / Iġaluŋniaġvik ( FIPS code | 02-75930 | |
---|---|---|
GNIS feature ID | 1410730 |
Teller (
It is situated on the southern half of the
History
The
An expedition from the
Teller was established in 1900 after the
The Norwegian Evangelical
The dirigible Norge detoured to Teller on its first flight over the North Pole from Norway to Nome in 1926. Many present residents of Teller came from Mary's Igloo. Mary's Igloo is now a summer fishing camp and has no permanent residents.
Today, Teller is an Inupiat village that depends on subsistence hunting and fishing.
Geography
Teller is located on a spit 116 km (72 mi) northwest of Nome on the Seward Peninsula.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 2.1 square miles (5.4 km2), of which 1.9 square miles (4.9 km2) is land and 0.2 square miles (0.52 km2) (9.00%) is water.
Climate
Teller has a
Climate Change
All of Teller's public and commercial buildings and two-thirds of Teller's occupied homes are at the Townsite, a low-lying sand spit that is surrounded on three sides by water. Since the turn of the century damaging storms have been coming more often, the storms have been getting bigger, [7]and the flooding has been getting worse. Teller has been forced to relocate its airport and landfill four miles uphill over the past three decades to escape intense erosion. [8] Point Spencer, visible as a crescent shape in the satellite image, is the northernmost natural harbor on the West coast of North America. Point Spencer protects Teller from many Bering Sea storms, but when sustained wind and waves come out of the WSW, Teller is inundated with storm driven coastal flooding. In September 2005 Federal disaster (DR-1618) struck Teller. All infrastructure on the spit, including the school, power plant, clinic, and homes, were impacted by flooding. During the worst part of the storm, the main road flooded, splitting the town in two. Community members were evacuated to higher ground on boats. A storm in May 2009 damaged Teller's seawall; no funding was available to repair it. A storm in November 2011 washed out the remaining portion of Teller's seawall, breached the School's sewage lagoon and flooded downtown streets with knee-deep flood waters contaminated with human waste. That same storm completely destroyed a newly constructed $6.5 million electrical intertie between Teller and Brevig Mission. To date, Teller has been unable to secure funding to repair the seawall.
Teller's Tribal Leaders aren't standing still in the face of Climate Change. The Teller Environmental Adaptation and Mitigation - TEAM Housing project, aims to construct eight new homes and move 32 existing homes from at-risk locations to a safer location nearby, inland and uphill. [9] Bering Straits Regional Housing Authority (BSRHA) will begin the project by constructing a fifteen-acre gravel pad in the Spring of 2024. Construction and relocation will follow. If they are able to move swiftly enough, then Teller's historically marginalized predominately low-income Native homeowners will be able to get out of the way of Climate Change before it strikes again.
Climate data for Teller | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °F (°C) | 47 (8) |
39 (4) |
45 (7) |
48 (9) |
62 (17) |
82 (28) |
79 (26) |
76 (24) |
61 (16) |
53 (12) |
41 (5) |
36 (2) |
82 (28) |
Mean maximum °F (°C) | 33.8 (1.0) |
32.5 (0.3) |
33.4 (0.8) |
40.8 (4.9) |
53.1 (11.7) |
68.7 (20.4) |
70.4 (21.3) |
68.1 (20.1) |
56.3 (13.5) |
46.3 (7.9) |
37.3 (2.9) |
30.8 (−0.7) |
72.5 (22.5) |
Mean daily maximum °F (°C) | 10.2 (−12.1) |
5.7 (−14.6) |
10.3 (−12.1) |
24.0 (−4.4) |
40.9 (4.9) |
52.1 (11.2) |
57.5 (14.2) |
56.0 (13.3) |
47.3 (8.5) |
33.0 (0.6) |
21.2 (−6.0) |
6.9 (−13.9) |
30.4 (−0.9) |
Daily mean °F (°C) | 2.6 (−16.3) |
−1.0 (−18.3) |
1.7 (−16.8) |
14.4 (−9.8) |
33.5 (0.8) |
44.9 (7.2) |
51.3 (10.7) |
50.5 (10.3) |
42.0 (5.6) |
29.0 (−1.7) |
17.8 (−7.9) |
0.7 (−17.4) |
23.9 (−4.5) |
Mean daily minimum °F (°C) | −4.4 (−20.2) |
−8.0 (−22.2) |
−6.9 (−21.6) |
5.2 (−14.9) |
26.2 (−3.2) |
37.9 (3.3) |
45.1 (7.3) |
44.9 (7.2) |
36.9 (2.7) |
24.6 (−4.1) |
12.6 (−10.8) |
−5.2 (−20.7) |
17.4 (−8.1) |
Mean minimum °F (°C) | −28.6 (−33.7) |
−28.9 (−33.8) |
−28.0 (−33.3) |
−11.1 (−23.9) |
7.6 (−13.6) |
27.0 (−2.8) |
36.7 (2.6) |
36.3 (2.4) |
27.2 (−2.7) |
11.4 (−11.4) |
−9.6 (−23.1) |
−22.6 (−30.3) |
−31.5 (−35.3) |
Record low °F (°C) | −38 (−39) |
−45 (−43) |
−40 (−40) |
−32 (−36) |
−17 (−27) |
12 (−11) |
25 (−4) |
27 (−3) |
20 (−7) |
−10 (−23) |
−30 (−34) |
−36 (−38) |
−45 (−43) |
Average precipitation inches (mm) | 0.80 (20) |
0.73 (19) |
0.83 (21) |
0.41 (10) |
0.33 (8.4) |
0.47 (12) |
0.92 (23) |
2.42 (61) |
1.08 (27) |
0.60 (15) |
0.64 (16) |
0.49 (12) |
9.73 (247) |
Average snowfall inches (cm) | 6.9 (18) |
7.1 (18) |
11.1 (28) |
4.6 (12) |
1.8 (4.6) |
0.1 (0.25) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.0 (0.0) |
0.3 (0.76) |
1.5 (3.8) |
6.6 (17) |
6.1 (15) |
46.2 (117) |
Average precipitation days | 5 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 5 | 8 | 13 | 9 | 6 | 8 | 6 | 76 |
Source: WRCC[10] |
Demographics
Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
---|---|---|---|
1910 | 125 | — | |
1920 | 80 | −36.0% | |
1930 | 76 | −5.0% | |
1940 | 118 | 55.3% | |
1950 | 160 | 35.6% | |
1960 | 217 | 35.6% | |
1970 | 220 | 1.4% | |
1980 | 212 | −3.6% | |
1990 | 151 | −28.8% | |
2000 | 268 | 77.5% | |
2010 | 229 | −14.6% | |
2020 | 249 | 8.7% | |
U.S. Decennial Census[11] |
Teller first appeared on the 1910 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. The census bureau erroneously reported the name as Fuller.[12] It reported correctly as Teller since 1920. It was formally incorporated in 1963.
As of the census
Of the 76 households, 53.9% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 36.8% were married couples living together, 15.8% had a female householder with no husband present, and 19.7% were non-families. 18.4% of all households were made up of individuals, and 5.3% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 3.53 and the average family size was 3.80.
In the city, the age distribution of the population shows 41.4% under the age of 18, 9.7% from 18 to 24, 26.5% from 25 to 44, 15.7% from 45 to 64, and 6.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 24 years. For every 100 females, there were 135.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 134.3 males.
The median income for a household in the city was $23,000, and the median income for a family was $20,000. Males had a median income of $25,625 versus $31,250 for females. The
Education
Teller is served by the Bering Strait School District. James C. Isabell School serves grades Pre-K through 12.
Notable Person
- dog musher, author
References
- Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs. January 1996. p. 148.
- ^ 2015 Alaska Municipal Officials Directory. Juneau: Alaska Municipal League. 2015. p. 152.
- ^ "2020 U.S. Gazetteer Files". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved October 29, 2021.
- ^ "US Gazetteer files: 2010, 2000, and 1990". United States Census Bureau. February 12, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.
- ^ "Teller - Saint Ann Catholic Church". Diocese of Fairbanks. April 2013.
- ^ Dickerson, Ora B. (1989) 120 Years of Alaska Postmasters, 1867-1987, p. 68. Scotts, Michigan: Carl J. Cammarata
- ^ "2022 Pacific typhoon season", Wikipedia, April 13, 2024, retrieved April 17, 2024
- ^ "When The Seawall Breaks: Climate Change In Teller, Alaska | National Trust for Historic Preservation". savingplaces.org. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
- ^ "Teller may move to higher ground". The Nome Nugget. September 7, 2023. Retrieved April 17, 2024.
- ^ "TELLER, AK (509102)". Western Regional Climate Center. Archived from the original on May 18, 2023. Retrieved November 22, 2015.
- ^ "Census of Population and Housing". Census.gov. Retrieved June 4, 2015.
- ^ "Supplement for Alaska - Population, Agriculture, Manufactures, Mines, and Quarries" (PDF). United States Census Bureau. 1910.
- ^ "U.S. Census website". United States Census Bureau. Retrieved January 31, 2008.