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Point #7: 54.56° N, 122.22° E
Time for a new random point: 54.56° N, 122.22° E. Winter is coming!
Physical geography:
Off to the wilds of Siberia, specifically the lower slopes of Mount Halan in the Urushinsky Ridge, part of the larger Stanovoy Range. The peak is about 4 miles south of us and is 4,600 feet, the valley below of the River Nyukzha is at 2,500 feet just a mile to the north, down a steep 13% grade and probably within sight. We're at 3,200 feet. These hills are forested, mostly larch, with some pine mixed in, part of the vast forest that makes up the East Siberian Taiga. This is likely a critter rich environment with elk, reindeer, bear, wolf, moose, deer, boar, and lynx all possible. There is a more detailed description on the ecology of the area.
As you might imagine it gets cold here, average of -15° F in the winter, hovering around freezing in spring and fall, and warming up to the mid 60s in summer. It is snowy in winter, getting 2-3 feet over the season, and rainy in summer getting 4-5 inches a month. All that flows into the River Nyukzha, which is a big one, about 300 feet wide here. It travels 350 miles to the Olyokma, another 400 to the Lena and then 1,300 miles to the Arctic Ocean.
Human geography:
You've probably figured out by now that we're in Russia. We are near the western edge of the Amur Oblast in the Tyndinsky district. Most civilization in this part of Russia is along the corridor formed by the Trans-Siberian Railway which lies 35 miles to the south. There is a road nearby our point running along the Nyukzha, it's hard to make out on the imagery, but I don't think it's paved. Considering the lack of anything along it I suspect it is a logging road. It'll take you about 50 miles or so of winding road to get to the nearest town of Urusha, population 3,332. Urusha does have a railroad station that'll connect you to the rest of the world. It's an 8 1/2 hour drive to Blagoveshchensk, the nearest big city.
The indigenous peoples of this area are the Evenks, traditionally a reindeer herding nomadic people that had the misfortune of living in between Russia and China. In the 1640's the Evenks were conquered by the Manchus from the east who would go on to conquer all of China and form the Qing Dynasty. The 1640's was also when the first Russians visited the area and they also demanded tribute from the Evenks. Eventually the Russians came into conflict with the Manchus and in 1689 they signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk that would put our point on the Chinese side of the boundary, nobody asked the Evenks. In 1858 China was engulfed in civil war and fighting the British and French in the opium war. Russia seized the chance and forced China to sign the Treaty of Aigun which pushed the border east to the Amur River and putting our point firmly in Russia.
Russians don't start moving into the area in earnest until the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the 1890s. Urusha is founded in 1904, one of the many small work settlements founded along the railway at regular intervals. There still is not much development here, this section of the railway is for people headed somewhere else. It was however witness to a fascinating chapter in history, the revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion. During WWI Russia raised the legion with Czech and Slovak volunteers wanting to fight against Austria-Hungary. When Russia surrendered, they didn't and sought to evacuate via the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Pacific port of Vladivostok. When the Bolsheviks tried to stop them they fought back and eventually seized control of the railway and most of the towns along it, becoming a major force on the anti-Bolshevik side of the Russian civil war from 1917 to 1920. American and Japanese forces occupied far eastern Russia to aid the anti-Bolshevik forces and cover the legions escape. They did eventually manage to successfully evacuate and in the power vacuum they left behind there formed the briefly independent Far Eastern Republic which would include our point, it would be absorbed back into Russia in 1922. Recommended reading about the Legions trek across Siberia.
Today our point is wilderness, just a few miles north of the Ulegir Wildlife Refuge (mapped below, our point is in the NE corner near the river), which was established in 2002 and does not have any services. Any people here are likely be either loggers (possibly Chinese who are often hired by Russian logging and mining operations in the area) or hunters. There might even still be some Evenks who form 5% of the population of the district.
Map of the refuge.
I'd be remiss if I didn't show off my map I made of the area for the Trans-Siberian Railway Encyclopedia. Our point is 80 miles NW of Skovorodino near the center of the map.
Physical geography:
Off to the wilds of Siberia, specifically the lower slopes of Mount Halan in the Urushinsky Ridge, part of the larger Stanovoy Range. The peak is about 4 miles south of us and is 4,600 feet, the valley below of the River Nyukzha is at 2,500 feet just a mile to the north, down a steep 13% grade and probably within sight. We're at 3,200 feet. These hills are forested, mostly larch, with some pine mixed in, part of the vast forest that makes up the East Siberian Taiga. This is likely a critter rich environment with elk, reindeer, bear, wolf, moose, deer, boar, and lynx all possible. There is a more detailed description on the ecology of the area.
As you might imagine it gets cold here, average of -15° F in the winter, hovering around freezing in spring and fall, and warming up to the mid 60s in summer. It is snowy in winter, getting 2-3 feet over the season, and rainy in summer getting 4-5 inches a month. All that flows into the River Nyukzha, which is a big one, about 300 feet wide here. It travels 350 miles to the Olyokma, another 400 to the Lena and then 1,300 miles to the Arctic Ocean.
Human geography:
You've probably figured out by now that we're in Russia. We are near the western edge of the Amur Oblast in the Tyndinsky district. Most civilization in this part of Russia is along the corridor formed by the Trans-Siberian Railway which lies 35 miles to the south. There is a road nearby our point running along the Nyukzha, it's hard to make out on the imagery, but I don't think it's paved. Considering the lack of anything along it I suspect it is a logging road. It'll take you about 50 miles or so of winding road to get to the nearest town of Urusha, population 3,332. Urusha does have a railroad station that'll connect you to the rest of the world. It's an 8 1/2 hour drive to Blagoveshchensk, the nearest big city.
The indigenous peoples of this area are the Evenks, traditionally a reindeer herding nomadic people that had the misfortune of living in between Russia and China. In the 1640's the Evenks were conquered by the Manchus from the east who would go on to conquer all of China and form the Qing Dynasty. The 1640's was also when the first Russians visited the area and they also demanded tribute from the Evenks. Eventually the Russians came into conflict with the Manchus and in 1689 they signed the Treaty of Nerchinsk that would put our point on the Chinese side of the boundary, nobody asked the Evenks. In 1858 China was engulfed in civil war and fighting the British and French in the opium war. Russia seized the chance and forced China to sign the Treaty of Aigun which pushed the border east to the Amur River and putting our point firmly in Russia.
Russians don't start moving into the area in earnest until the building of the Trans-Siberian Railway in the 1890s. Urusha is founded in 1904, one of the many small work settlements founded along the railway at regular intervals. There still is not much development here, this section of the railway is for people headed somewhere else. It was however witness to a fascinating chapter in history, the revolt of the Czechoslovak Legion. During WWI Russia raised the legion with Czech and Slovak volunteers wanting to fight against Austria-Hungary. When Russia surrendered, they didn't and sought to evacuate via the Trans-Siberian Railway and the Pacific port of Vladivostok. When the Bolsheviks tried to stop them they fought back and eventually seized control of the railway and most of the towns along it, becoming a major force on the anti-Bolshevik side of the Russian civil war from 1917 to 1920. American and Japanese forces occupied far eastern Russia to aid the anti-Bolshevik forces and cover the legions escape. They did eventually manage to successfully evacuate and in the power vacuum they left behind there formed the briefly independent Far Eastern Republic which would include our point, it would be absorbed back into Russia in 1922. Recommended reading about the Legions trek across Siberia.
Today our point is wilderness, just a few miles north of the Ulegir Wildlife Refuge (mapped below, our point is in the NE corner near the river), which was established in 2002 and does not have any services. Any people here are likely be either loggers (possibly Chinese who are often hired by Russian logging and mining operations in the area) or hunters. There might even still be some Evenks who form 5% of the population of the district.
Map of the refuge.
I'd be remiss if I didn't show off my map I made of the area for the Trans-Siberian Railway Encyclopedia. Our point is 80 miles NW of Skovorodino near the center of the map.