Cape Hinchinbrook, Alaska, 1948 - NARA - 298197

Hinchinbrook Island (russian: Хинчинбрук) is an island in the

Gulf of Alaska The Gulf of Alaska (Tlingit: ''Yéil T'ooch’'') is an arm of the Pacific Ocean defined by the curve of the southern coast of Alaska, stretching from the Alaska Peninsula and Kodiak Island in the west to the Alexander Archipelago in the east, ...

lying at the entrance to

Prince William Sound Prince William Sound ( Sugpiaq: ''Suungaaciq'') is a sound of the Gulf of Alaska on the south coast of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of the Kenai Peninsula. Its largest port is Valdez, at the southern terminus of the T ...

in the state of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...

, United States. The island has a land area of 171.98 sq mi (445.438 km²), making it the 37th largest island in the United States. There was a population of five permanent residents as of the 2000 census. Cape Hinchinbrook Light is located on the southwest side of the island. Also on the southwest side is the abandoned village of Nuchek on

Port Etches Port Etches is a bay in the southcentral part of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the west side of Hinchinbrook Island and opens onto Hinchinbrook Entrance, a strait between Hinchinbrook Island and Montague Island, connecting Prince Wil ...

(bay). The Chugach Alaska Corporation now runs th
Nuuciq Spirit Camp
at this site. During the Cold War, a US Governmen
White Alice radar site
was located on the northeast corner of the island. This site is now abandoned, and all that remains is a trail to the former antenna site on a small hill to the southwest and several of the buildings. Nearby Boswell Bay Airport is the landing strip that formerly served this site. A few houses comprise the hamlet of Boswell Bay across the bay to the south. The State of Alaska maintain
Boswell Bay Marine State Park
nearby on Boswell Bay. In 1792, a battle occurred on Hinchinbrook Island between Yakutat

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

and a group of Russians and Kodiak

Sugpiaq The Alutiiq people (pronounced in English; from Promyshlenniki Russian Алеутъ, "Aleut"; plural often "Alutiit"), also called by their ancestral name ( or ; plural often "Sugpiat"), as well as Pacific Eskimo or Pacific Yupik, are a sout ...

led by Alexander Baranov. The Tlingit had likely come to the island seeking retribution after the

Chugach Chugach , Chugach Sugpiaq or Chugachigmiut is the name of an Alaska Native people in the region of the Kenai Peninsula and Prince William Sound on the southern coast of Alaska. The Chugach people are an Alutiiq ( Pacific Eskimo) people who spea ...

Sugpiaq had raided them the previous year. In 1797, Baranov visited Fort Konstantinovsk, built by the Lebedev-Lastochkin Company, on the island he called Nuchek Island. Most of these men joined his

Shelikhov-Golikov Company The Shelikhov-Golikov Company (SGC) was a Russian fur trading venture, founded by Irkutsk entrepreneurs Grigory Shelikhov and Ivan Larionovich Golikov in 1783. Formed in Eastern Siberia during the 1780s along with several competing companies, ...

.Khlebnikov, K.T., 1973, Baranov, Chief Manager of the Russian Colonies in America, Kingston: The Limestone Press, In the middle of May 1912, the 1,502 ton United States Lighthouse Service Tender ''Armeria'' became stranded on the rocks near Cape Hinchinbrook. She was attempting to rescue the barge Haydn Brown but ended up a casualty herself. The crew of 36 were rescued by the steamer '' Admiral Sampson''. The vessel, valued at $344,000, became a total loss. Some of the $70,000 cargo of coal, buoys and supplies for area lighthouses was salvaged.The H W McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest (1966) Pg 211

References

Hinchinbrook Island: Block 1173, Census Tract 2, Valdez-Cordova Census Area, Alaska
United States Census Bureau
Amateur Radio Expedition to Hitnchinbrook Island AL3/VE7ACN
{{Authority control Islands of Alaska Islands of Chugach Census Area, Alaska Islands of Unorganized Borough, Alaska