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Situated along a small inlet on Kuskokwim Bay, Goodnews Bay’s population of approximately 250 people is predominantly Yup’ik Eskimo. The village is located at the mouth of the Goodnews River, which dumps Arctic graylings, Dolly Vardens and rainbow trout into the bay.

Goodnews Bay was moved from its original location (not far from where it is now) in the 1920s due to flooding and storms. The Yup’ik name of the village in its original location was Imagpiguak, meaning “Little Ocean.” Its present English name stems from two Russian explorers who, in 1818 named the village Dobriek Vestei (good news). Later, a disillusioned French explorer continued the name, calling it Bonnes Nouvelles Baie, though in his written accounts he referred to it as “Bay of False Reports.” Traditionally, the village, in its current location, is known in Yup’ik as “Mumtraq.”

In 1926, two Yup’ik residents, Walter Smith and Henry Wuya, discovered platinum in the streams, and Goodnews Bay became the only primary producer of platinum in the U.S. until it closed in 1990. Currently, the biggest employers in Goodnews Bay are the school and the post office, both of which were built in the 1930s.

Up until 2010, Goodnews Bay had been on a honey bucket system. Last spring, the Division of Environmental Health and Engineering of the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium officially completed a state-of-the-art water and sewage system. Every home in Goodnews Bay now has running water and flushing toilets, and the village now boasts a high-pressure fire hose.

The climate in Goodnews Bay is both continental and maritime. Temperatures range from 6 – 57°F. There is an annual precipitation of 22” and annual snowfall of 43”.

Resting atop soft rolling hills, residents enjoy beautiful views of the mountains across the bay and fantastic sunsets that drape over Beluga Point. Just outside of town is Mumtrak Hill – a mountain by some Alaskans’ standards – that produces plenty of berries in the fall. There is heavy reliance on subsistence fishing and hunting of seal, walrus, birds, moose and bear.

Kuitsarak, Inc.

P.O. Box 150

Goodnews Bay, AK 99589

(907) 967-8520