GEOG 121 Project 1: Mapping the Census

Togiak, Alaska

Stephen Crawford
 
Figure 1: This map of Togiak, Alaska was created with the TIGER mapping service. The scale is 1:342875. The village of Togiak is the group of streets north and east of the pushpin; the Togiak Fisheries plant (where I've worked since 1989) is on the spit 2 miles east of Togiak village. The gray landmass in the bottom left is the tip of Hagermeister Island. TIGER placed the pushpin nearly 15 miles away from Togiak (and a few miles into Bristol Bay!); the pushpin may represent the center of the polygon that has Togiak village as an attribute.
 
Figure 2: The above choropleth map displays as feature data land, bodies of water, and U.S. Census tracts for the Bristol Bay region of southwestern Alaska. The attribute data (percentage of population age 20 to 49) is classified by census tract and quintile, which resulted in a more meaningful map than other classification schemes I tried (most of which showed tracts or counties with all the same colors). The two tracts with the highest percentage of 20-49 year olds are those containing the two largest cities in the region. Both Dillingham (right under the "AK") and King Salmon/Naknek (about 70 miles east of Dillingham) are busy fishing towns with large populations of transplants from the Lower 48 and other parts of Alaska who are drawn to the area because of the fishing industry. These populations are primarily in the 20 to 49 year old range. The other tracts in the region are made up of small native villages that tend to have a wider range of age groups.
 
According to the 1990 U.S. Census, Bristol Bay Borough, the census area to which Togiak village belongs, had a total population (true head count) of 1,410. The head count(from STF1A) of persons ages 20-49 was 733. The estimated count(from STF3A) for the age group was 754. For Togiak village, the head count(STF1A) for the age group was 260; the estimated count(STF3A) was 261. All data from the U.S. Census web site.
 
Photo: James P. Merola
Figure 3: The above photo is of the Togiak Fisheries plant, looking to the southwest. Togiak village sits along the shoreline at the far right in the photo. Hagermeister Island is on the horizon, to the left.