Ypalgyn

Ypalgyn lies on the Little Anyuy in the river country east of the Kolyma. The place became known as Ostrovnoye, or “island place,” after a settlement grew on an island in the river. Here the northern waterways brought together people travelling from the Kolyma and the Chukchi interior.

In the late eighteenth century trade between Russians and Chukchi developed at seasonal fairs on the Anyuy. The gathering moved between sites, including the Angarka on the Great Anyuy and the island on the Little Anyuy. An account dates the founding of Ostrovnoye to 1810; the fair brought traders and reindeer herders together to exchange goods and news across a vast northern region. Furs and walrus ivory passed through networks that extended as far as the Bering Strait.