Norton Sound

The Norton Sound is an inlet of the Bering Sea on the western coast of Alaska. For centuries the Norton Sound area has been home to the Yupik and Inupiat people. It is the boundary between the two groups; the Yupik live to the south and the Inupiat to the north. There are several villages along the shores of the Norton Sound which include Elim, Golovin, Stebbins, White Mountain, Koyuk, Shaktoolik, St. Michael and Unalakleet. I have been to 5 of these villages and they are all exceptionally beautiful. Living in an area that is surrounded by the Norton Sound and having a view of it from my bedroom window has given me the chance to watch it change through the seasons.

The Sound has gone from a beautiful body of water filled with salmon to an icy winter wonderland in just a few months. When I first arrived in Stebbins this summer I would walk along it’s lovely beaches and would help pull salmon out of it’s waters. Now I walk on it’s frozen surface to the massive icebergs that have formed among the frozen layers. The Norton Sound is an extraordinary area of the world. It’s beautiful in the summer when the sun barely sets behind it before it quickly rises again and when you can see and hear it’s waves crashing on the beach. The Norton Sound is even more spectacular in the winter when the sun barely rises before it quickly sets behind the Sounds endless miles of frozen water.