Baranof Island
| Baranof Island | ||
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.JPG) |
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| Waters | Pacific Ocean | |
| Archipelago | Alexander Archipelago | |
| Geographical location | 56 ° 59 ′ N , 134 ° 58 ′ W | |
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| length | 162 km | |
| width | 48 km | |
| surface | 4th 160 km² | |
| Highest elevation | Veniaminof Peak 1643 m |
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| Residents | 8532 (2000) 2.1 inhabitants / km² |
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| main place | Sitka | |
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Baranof Island , also called Baranov Island or Sitka Island , is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle in southeastern Alaska . It was called Sheet'-ká X'áat'l (often simply " Shee ") by the local Tlingit people . It is one of the ABC islands of Alaska .
geography
The island is a maximum of 162 km long and 48 km wide. It is the most mountainous island in the Alexander Archipelago and reaches a height of 1643 m above sea level in Veniaminof Peak . With an area of 4160 km² it is the eighth largest island in Alaska and the tenth largest island in the USA ; in the list of the largest islands in the world it is 135th. The population of the island in 2000 was 8532 people.
Almost the entire area of the island is part of the city and borough of Sitka (Sitka extends north to Chichagof Island ). The only part of Baranof Island that does not belong to Sitka is a small strip of land (9.75 km²) in the extreme southeast, which belongs to the former Petersburg Census Area and includes the city of Port Alexander . This part had a population of 81 in 2000. The towns of Baranof Warm Springs , Port Armstrong and Port Walter are on the eastern side of the island. Goddard , an abandoned settlement 25 km south of Sitka, has some private houses and hot springs with two public baths. There are three salmon rearing stations, one immediately north of Port Alexander at Port Armstrong, another immediately north of Baranof Warm Springs at Hidden Falls , and the third south of Sitka near Medvejie Lake .
Fishing, processing and tourism are major industries on the island, which is also known for brown bears and sitka black- tailed deer ( Odocoileus hemionus sitkensis ), a subspecies of the mule deer ( Odocoileus hemionus ).
history
The first European settlement on the island was founded in 1799 by Alexander Baranov , the director and first governor of the Russian-American company , after whom the island and the archipelago are named. After the Battle of Sitka in 1804, Baranof Island was the center of Russian activities in North America for the period up to 1867 and the headquarters for Russian fur trading interests.
Established around 1900 , canning factories, whaling stations and fox farms were centered around Sitka and on the north side of the island around Rodman Bay . Most were abandoned at the beginning of World War II . The remnants of these outposts still exist, albeit in a dilapidated state.
Web links
- Tlingit Geographical Place Names for the Sheet'Ka Kwaan - Sitka Tribe of Alaska ( June 8, 2011 memento in the Internet Archive ), an interactive map of the Sitka Area with indigenous names.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Veniaminof Peak at peakbagger.com (English)