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Admiralty Island

Island in southeast Alaska, US

Summary

Island in southeast Alaska, US

Field	Value
name	Admiralty
image_name	Admiralty Islands.jpg
image_caption	Colt Island and Horse Island with Admiralty Island in the background
image_map	Adis map.jpg
location	ABC islands of Alaska
coordinates
archipelago	Alexander Archipelago
area_sqmi	1646.4
length_mi	90
width_mi	35
elevation_ft	4800
country	United States
country_admin_divisions_title	State
country_admin_divisions	Alaska
country_admin_divisions_title_1	Borough
country_admin_divisions_1	Hoonah-Angoon Census Area and Juneau
population	650
population_as_of	2000
density_sqmi
embed	{{designation list	embed = yes
designation1	NMON
designation1_date	1978

the Admiralty Island in Alaska

Admiralty Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska. It is 145 km (90 mi) long and 56 km (35 mi) wide with an area of 4,264.1 km2 (1,646.4 sq mi), making it the seventh-largest island in the United States and the 132nd largest island in the world. It is one of the ABC islands in Alaska. The island is nearly cut in two by the Seymour Canal; to its east is the long, narrow Glass Peninsula. It's separated from Kupreanof Island in the south by Frederick Sound. Most of Admiralty Island—955,747 acres (3,868 km2)—is protected as the Admiralty Island National Monument administered by the Tongass National Forest. The Kootznoowoo Wilderness encompasses vast stands of old-growth temperate rainforest. These forests provide some of the best habitat available to species such as brown bears, bald eagles, and Sitka black-tailed deer.

Angoon, a traditional Tlingit community home to 572 people, is the only settlement on the island, although an unpopulated section of the city of Juneau comprises 264.68 km2 (102.19 sq mi) (6.2 percent) of the island's land area near its northern end. The island's total population at the 2000 census was 650.

The national monument is sacred to the Angoon Community Association, a Tlingit tribe, who live in Angoon on the western coast of the island. The Tlingits fought to make protection for the island a part of ANILCA legislation, and continue to engage in stewardship of the island's natural resources. Many of Angoon's residents make daily subsistence use of the national monument.

History

The Tlingit language name for the island if Xootsnoowú, which is commonly interpreted as "Fortress of the Bear(s)", and gives its name to hooch.

The island was named by British naval officer George Vancouver in honor of his Royal Navy employers, the Admiralty. Joseph Whidbey, master of the Discovery during Vancouver's 1791–95 expedition, explored it in July–August 1794, in the process circumnavigating it.

The Admiralty Island National Monument was created December 1, 1978, by President Jimmy Carter. In the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act Congress designated all but 18,351 acres (74 km2) of the monument as the Kootznoowoo Wilderness, ensuring that the vast bulk of this monument is permanently protected from development. The monument is administered by the U.S. Forest Service from offices in Juneau.

In 1986 it was named a biosphere reserve along with Glacier Bay National Park under the Man and the Biosphere Programme.

Ecology

Western hemlock, Sitka spruce and western redcedar dominate the prolific rainforest vegetation; wildlife in abundance includes brown bear, bald eagles, many species of salmon, whales, and deer. Admiralty Island is home to the highest density of brown bears in North America. An estimated 1,600 brown bears inhabit the island, outnumbering Admiralty's human residents nearly three to one. It has more brown bears than the entire lower 48 states, and one of the highest densities of bald eagles in the world.

Whaling

Murder Cove is located at the southernmost portion of the island and was home to the Tyee Company whaling station.

Mining

The Greens Creek mine is an underground silver, gold, zinc and lead mine located on the northwest end of the island, within the national monument. It began operations in 1989.

Recreation

Admiralty Island offers opportunities for outdoor recreation. The 32-mile Cross Admiralty Canoe Route is a popular destination for backcountry canoeing and kayaking, traversing the breadth of the island through a series of lakes, streams and trail portages, with several cabins and shelters along the way. While the modern route was laid out and constructed by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s, it follows traces long used by the island's native inhabitants for hunting, fishing and trading.

The Pack Creek Brown Bear Viewing Area offers visitors the opportunity to observe brown bears in their natural habitat as they fish for salmon and interact with one another during the summer months. Permits are required for all visitors to Pack Creek; they can be obtained through the Forest Service.

Over recent decades, various fishing and outdoor recreation lodges have opened up on the island with most of these lodges operating in the Tlingit town of Angoon. There’s also one lodge on a small, privately held plot of land within the national monument.

Lighthouse

The Point Retreat Light is located on the northern tip of Admiralty and was an important aid-to-navigation.

Citations

General and cited sources

References

{{cite gnis. 1419918. Admiralty Island National Monument. November 18, 2013
Admiralty Island National Monument/Kootznoowoo Wilderness, [[USDA Forest Service]], MB-R10-190. (1992)
(1801). "A voyage of discovery to the North Pacific ocean, and round the world". J. Stockdale.
Park, Mailing Address: Glacier Bay National. "1980: From Monument to Park - Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)".
"Admiralty Island National Monument". [[United States Forest Service]].
[http://www.seatrails.org/com_angoon/trl-crossadmiralty.htm Cross Admiralty Canoe Route] {{Webarchive. link. (August 12, 2017, SEATrails.)
[https://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/oha/publications/ccccanoeroute.pdf Civilian Conservation Corps Properties in Alaska] , [[Alaska Department of Natural Resources]].

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

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