Trail Creek Caves

Trail Creek Caves, a group of twelve caves on Alaska’s Seward Peninsula in Bering Land Bridge National Preserve, is important chiefly as an archaeological site. Discovered in 1928 by Taylor Moto and Alfred Karmun of Deering, the caves were tested and excavated from 1948 to 1950, establishing them as a major record of ancient human activity in northwestern Alaska. Finds included stone tools and bone fragments dated to 8,500 years ago or earlier, showing prehistoric hunters used the area. A tooth excavated in 1949 and genetically analyzed in 2018 linked a child from about 9,000 years before present to the Ancient Beringian population, deepening understanding of Alaska’s peopling and the early Americas.

Deering, Alaska · United States