It was initially declared a national monument under the authority of the Antiquities Act by President Jimmy Carter on December 1, 1978.

Located entirely above the Arctic Circle in a region of permafrost, the monument's lands include typical thermokarst features.

[11] Initial investigations by archaeologist J. Louis Giddings in the late 1940s found campsites on the cape as much as 4,000 years old, and even older sites on the mainland.

In newer locations the team documented the remains of semi-subterranean houses built into the beach ridges, such as the Old Whaling site.

[12][13] The oldest mainland sites such as Battle Rock, Rabbit Mountain and the Lower Bench date to the Paleo-Arctic tradition, about 10,000 to 7,000 years before present.

Similar materials have been recovered in the Trail Creek caves of Bering Land Bridge National Preserve on the Seward Peninsula.

[8] In early modern times the Kotzebue area was the site of Qatnut, a kind of trade fair for the region's native people.

A few 20th century structures exist in the monument, including an Alaska Road Commission cabin at Anigaaq that has been evaluated for historic significance.

[8] In the 1950s the area's lack of good natural harbors, a desire to develop the Alaskan frontier facing the Soviet Union and the Operation Plowshare drive for the peaceful use of nuclear weapons brought proposals for Operation Chariot, a proposed deepwater harbor at Cape Thompson 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the monument, to be excavated using nuclear devices.

Typical thermokarst features seen in the monument include pingos, polygon ice wedges and thaw ponds.

[8] Low vegetation covers the land, mainly in tussocks of cottongrass, with shrubby growth of willow, Labrador tea, dwarf birch, mountain alder and other species in moist tundra areas.

Nesting species include tundra swan, mallard, green-winged teal, common eider, Canada goose, and horned and red-necked grebes.

[17] A 2006 study measured high lead and cadmium concentrations in voles and birds sampled near the road compared to those at a control location.

The animal sample was a follow-up to an earlier study that found elevated lead and cadmium levels in mosses near the road.

It was first declared a national monument by President Jimmy Carter on December 1, 1978 using his authority under the Antiquities Act when Congressional negotiations on the proposed ANILCA bill were stalled.

[8] The monument's headquarters are at the Northwest Arctic Heritage Center in Kotzebue, across the Hotham Inlet from Cape Krusenstern.

[21][22] The units are managed together as the Western Arctic National Parklands, with a single Park Service superintendent in charge.