Chamisso Island
| Chamisso Island | ||
|---|---|---|
 |
||
| Waters | Kotzebue Sound , Chukchi Sea | |
| Geographical location | 66 ° 13 '7 " N , 161 ° 49' 33" W | |
|
||
| length | 2.3 km | |
| width | 1.4 km | |
| surface | 1.8 km² | |
| Highest elevation | 70 m | |
| Residents | uninhabited | |
 |
||
Chamisso Island ( Inuktitut : Iguagvik ) is an island in Kotzebue Sound , an arm of the Chukchi Sea , which protrudes north of the Bering Strait into mainland North America. It is located 4.2 km south of the Choris Peninsula at the entrance to the Eschscholtz Bay .
geography
Chamisso Island is roughly triangular in shape. The island is 2.3 km long and a maximum of 1.4 km wide. The highest point is 70 m above sea level. The coast drops steeply almost everywhere, only in the east a flat sandy headland allows a landing.
nature
The Chamisso Island has been designated as a nature reserve since December 7, 1912 . Together with the much smaller neighboring island Puffin Island a good 400 meters northwest and some rocks, it has formed the 1.84 km² Chamisso Wilderness since 1975 , which in turn is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge .
The vegetation corresponds to that of a tundra . There are also local beach and marsh plant communities . About 3000 seabirds breed on the island, especially the Hornlund . Foxes and seals visit the island at least temporarily.
history
Otto von Kotzebue was the first European to set foot on the island as leader of the Russian Rurik expedition on August 3, 1816. He named it after the poet and naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso , who was a participant in the expedition. Kotzebue found a resting place for the Eskimos and several storage facilities that contained seal meat.
In 1826, the HMS Blossom anchored off the island under Captain Frederick William Beechey , took drinking water and waited in vain for John Franklin , who was exploring the north coast of Alaska by boat from the mouth of the Mackenzie River , and William Edward Parry , who tried the Northwest Passage with HMS Navigate Hecla and HMS Fury . There was a bloody conflict with the Eskimos, in which at least one Eskimo was killed and several Englishmen were wounded.
Individual evidence
- ^ Theodore Roosevelt: A Book-Lover's Holidays in the Open . Charles Scribner's sons, New York 1916. Appendix B.
- ↑ Chamisso Wilderness ( memento of October 15, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) on Wilderness.net
- ↑ Chamisso Wilderness Area ( Memento from May 14, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) on the Great Outdoor Recreation Pages
- ↑ Otto von Kotzebue: Journey of discovery into the South Seas and after the Bering Strait to explore a north-eastern passage . Volume 1 , Gebrüder Hoffmann, Weimar 1821, pp. 144f
- ^ Frederick William Beechey: Narrative of a Voyage to the Pacific and Beering's Strait . Volume 2, Colburn & Bentley, London 1831, pp. 280-288
