[10] In the late 19th century, the Alaska Commercial Company established a trading post in the town, called Mumtrekhlogamute, which had a population of 41 people by the 1880 census.

[10] In 1885, the Moravian Church established a mission in the area under the leadership of William and Caroline Weinland and John and Edith Kilbuck.

[citation needed] The missionaries moved Bethel from Mamterillermiut to its present location on the west side of the Kuskokwim River.

[11] On February 19, 1997, a school shooting attracted widespread media attention to Bethel when 16-year-old Evan Ramsey, a student at Bethel Regional High School, shot and killed his principal and one student and wounded two others, for which he later received a 210-year prison sentence.

In October 2015, though, a vote for allowing alcohol sales in Bethel passed and two liquor licenses were approved for existing stores in the city.

[17] Fire fighters demolished part of the building in an effort to save a media center containing Yup'ik artifacts and elder interviews.

Bethel has a subarctic climate (Köppen: "Dfc"), with long, somewhat snowy, and cold winters, and short, mild summers.

Snowfall usually falls in light bouts, and is actually greater in November and December (before the sea freezes) than in January and February, averaging 45 inches (114 cm) a season.

The state-owned Bethel Airport is the regional transportation hub, and is served by three passenger carriers, including Alaska Airlines, Grant Aviation, and Renfro's Alaskan Adventure.

Winter ice roads lead to several nearby villages, but their condition varies depending on temperature and snowfall.

An extensive network of snow machine trails connects Bethel to villages all over the Delta, from the Bering Sea to the Yukon.

[33] Bethel is also the site of a unique 8.5-mile (13.7 km) prototype single-wire earth return electrical intertie to Napakiak, Alaska, constructed in 1981.

Held every January since 1980, the race commemorates an early mail route that once tied the settlement to the outside world.

[39] Local recreational activities include snow machining, skiing, bicycling, kayaking, caribou hunting, and salmon fishing.

Hundreds of costumed dancers, drummers, and singers perform traditional Yup'ik story dances during the three-day festival, sponsored by the Bethel Council on the Arts.

"[40] The Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center also hosts a bimonthly "Saturday Market" where artisans and crafters from the Yukon Kuskokwim Delta come to sell their crafts.

Bethel and the smaller communities surrounding it are primarily served by Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta Regional Hospital, a 50-bed general acute care medical facility.

Since the founding of its community radio station in 1970, the media has become part of Yup'ik development in southwest Alaska and important to the people's self-definition.