Teller is located on a spit between Port Clarence and Grantley Harbor on the Seward Peninsula, just 72 miles north of Nome. It can be reached by auto from Nome on the Nome-Teller Road. Charter and scheduled air service is also available from Nome. Teller has a population of 257. The zip code is 99778.
Teller is 10 feet above sea level. Its climate is maritime when the Bering Sea is ice free, usually early June to mid-November. Freezing of the sea causes a change to a more continental climate with less precipitation and colder temperatures. Mean annual precipitation is 11 inches with mean annual snowfall 50 inches. Winter temperatures average -9° and 8°F. Summer temperatures average between 44° and 57°F.
There is an airstrip 2 miles south. Its elevation is 293 feet and the runway length is 2,600 feet. The runway is gravel. There are no airport facilities, it is unattended and unlighted. Transportation into town is available.
Arts and crafts available include carved walrus and mastodon ivory, havd-sewn seal skin items and Eskimo dolls.
Captain Daniel B. Libby and his party from the Western Union Telegraph Expedition wintered here in 1866 and 1867; the site was then called Libbyville or Libby Station. The first permanent settlement, named for U.S. Senator H. M. Teller, was established around 1900 after the Bluestone Placer discovery 15 miles to the south. During those boom years at the turn of the century, Teller had a population estimated at 5,000 and was a major regional trading center. Although Teller's population had dropped to 125 by 1910 and continued to decrease through 1930, the number of residents has since gradually increased. The community was incorporated as a second-class city in 1963.
The economy of Teller is based on subsistence food harvest supplemented by part-time wage earnings. Some foxes are trapped in the area and reindeer herding has been practiced since Teller's founding. Residents hunt for seal, beluga whale, moose, squirrel, rabbit, ptarmigan, wildfowl and their eggs. They fish for salmon, herring, smelt, whitefish, sculpin, tomcod and flounder.
Teller was the landing site of the Norge, the first dirigible to be flown over the North Pole. The craft, piloted by Roald Amundson, flew 71 hours from Spitzbergen, Norway. Its intended landing site was Nome, but bad weather forced it to land May 13, 1926, on the beach at Teller instead. Near the landing site, a plaque commemorating the event has been placed on an old 2 story false-front building in which some of the disassembled segments and gear from the Norge were stored. The storage site is on the National Register of Historic Places.
Teller is also home of Libby Riddles, 1985 winner of the Iditarod Sled Dog Race. Riddles, first woman to win the grueling 1,049 mile race from Anchorage to Nome, raises and trains her dogs in Teller.
From May through October a 72 mile gravel road is open from Teller to Nome. Winter trails, traveled primarily by snow machines and a few dog sled teams, radiate from Teller to Brevig Mission, Marys Igloo and Nome.
Communications in Teller include phone, mail planes, radio and TV. The community has a Luthern and Catholic churches served by itinerant pastors. It also has a school with grades preschool through 12. There are community electricity and water systems. The sewage system is primarily honey-buckets. Freight arrives by cargo plane and barge.
