Norton Bay

Norton Bay indents the eastern shore of Norton Sound, where rivers descend from the hills to meet the Bering Sea. The coast lay within a network of exchange linking Yup'ik and Iñupiat communities with Athabaskan peoples of the Yukon interior. Routes across the land joined the waters of Norton Sound to the great river, carrying goods between the coast and inland settlements.

In 1778 James Cook sailed into Norton Sound and named the bay. Russian traders later sought a place in the existing exchange: by 1833 the Russian-American Company had established a post at St Michael and a trading hut at Unalakleet, south of the bay. These outposts stood amid trading relationships that had long connected the region's inhabitants across the peninsula and the Yukon country.