What the record shows
The federal survey describes the site: population 42 (1890), at head of Sanford Cove on S shore of Endicott Arm, 8 mi. SE of Harbor I. and 55 mi. SE of Juneau, Coast Mts.
Former mining town named for Sumdum Glacier; Sumdum post office was intermittently maintained here from 1897 to 1942 (Ricks, 1965, p. 62). This may be the same Sumdum which Hodge (1910, p. 649), Bureau of American Ethnology (BAE), listed as a Tlingit Indian village located at Port Houghton. He noted the population in 1868 as 150.
Sumdumappears in the U.S. Geological Survey's place-name archive as a historical populated place — a settlement that once carried a name and no longer does. Our editors are verifying its full story against census records, newspaper archives, and county histories; this record will grow as sources are confirmed.
Before you visit
Unverified sites may sit on private land, and coordinates from historical records can be imprecise. Verify land status and access before traveling. Take photographs, leave nails — removing artifacts from federal land is a crime.
See it in context on the national atlas map.
From the field
The most valuable part of this record is the part only visitors can write.
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