Alexander Archipelago
| Alexander Archipelago | ||
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Geographical location | 57 ° 29 ′ N , 135 ° 6 ′ W | |
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| Number of islands | approx. 1100 | |
| Main island | Baranof Island | |
| Total land area | 35,000 km² | |
| Residents | 37,159 | |
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The Alexander Archipelago ( English Alexander Archipelago ) is a group of islands ( archipelago ) in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of the Alaska Panhandle .
geography
The islands are at the top of a chain of steep submarine mountains along the Pacific coast of Canada and Alaska . The approximately 1,100 islands are separated from each other and from the mainland by deep straits . The northern part of the Inside Passage runs through the archipelago.
The largest islands are the three ABC Islands ( Chichagof Island , Admiralty Island , Baranof Island ), Wrangell Island , Revillagigedo Island , Kupreanof Island , Prince of Wales Island , Kuiu Island and Etolin Island .
All islands are very rugged, densely forested and have a large variety of wild animals .
population
In the region living Indian tribes of the Tlingit and Kaigani Haida . The Tsimshians who live on Annette Island are not originally from the region, but immigrated from British Columbia in the late 19th century .
The largest cities in the archipelago are Sitka on Baranof Island and Ketchikan on Revillagigedo Island. The largest city in the region and capital of Alaska, Juneau is on the mainland.
economy
The economy on the islands consists mainly of tourism , fishing and forestry .
history
The archipelago was first explored by Russians in 1741 and later by the British , Spanish, and Americans . With the Alaska Purchase in 1867, the islands passed into American ownership.
The archipelago was named after Alexander Andrejewitsch Baranow (1747-1819), the head of the Russian fur trading company at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. From 1799 to 1818 he was the first governor of the Russian-American Company ; he formally took possession of the islands in 1799. Baranof Island is also named after him.
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