The Colville River (; Inupiat: Kuukpik) is a major river of the Arctic Ocean coast of Alaska in the United States, approximately long. One of the northernmost major rivers in North America, it drains a remote area of tundra on the north side of the Brooks Range entirely above the Arctic Circle. The river is frozen for more than half the year and floods each spring. It rises on the north slope of the De Long Mountains, at the western end of the Brooks Range, north of the continental divide in the southwestern corner of the National Petroleum Reserve. It flows initially north, then generally east through the foothills on the north side of the range, broadening as it receives the inflow of many tributaries that descend from the middle Brooks Range. Along its middle course it forms the southeastern border of the National Petroleum Reserve. At the Iñupiat village of Umiat it turns north to flow across the Arctic plain, entering the western Beaufort Sea in a broad delta near Nuiqsut, approximately 120 mi (190 km) west of Prudhoe Bay. Measuring about , the river's triangular delta includes 34 distributaries, each with its own mouth, at normal water stages. During high water, the number of distributaries may reach 5,000. The largest distributary is the Nechalic Channel, which flows through Nuiqsut. The river valley contains developed and undeveloped petroleum and natural gas deposits. In 2015, construction was completed on a bridge spanning the Colville River north of Nuiqsut. This makes it the first major river crossing north of the Arctic Circle in North America. The bridge, at a cost of $100 million, gives its owner ConocoPhillips access to petroleum resources further West in the NPRA. According to the United States Geological Survey, in 1837 British explorers P. W. Dease and Thomas Simpson named the river for Andrew Colvile, whose last name they spelled "Colville". Demographics Colville River first appeared on the 1880 U.S. Census as an unincorporated area of Inuit (all 50 reported as such). It did not specify where along the river they settled. It did not report again until 1940 when it was erroneously called "Coleville River" on the census. It also did not specify where the residents lived. Wildlife The Colville River and its adjacent hills are home to a variety of Arctic wildlife. The Colville runs through the range of the Teshekpuk and Central Arctic caribou