Ilak Island ( ale, Iilax̂) is a small

island An island (or isle) is an isolated piece of habitat that is surrounded by a dramatically different habitat, such as water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An isla ...

in the eastern

Delarof Islands The Delarof Islands ( ale, Naahmiĝun tanangis; russian: Острова Деларова) (ca. ) are a group of small islands at the extreme western end of the Andreanof Islands group in the central Aleutian Islands, Alaska. The Delarofs consist ...

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands (; ; ale, Unangam Tanangin,”Land of the Aleuts", possibly from Chukchi ''aliat'', "island"), also called the Aleut Islands or Aleutic Islands and known before 1867 as the Catherine Archipelago, are a chain of 14 large v ...

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 ...

. Ilak island is only across. Its highest point is . Its name was recorded by Commodore Igor, Larenz, Asim and Kevin as "Illuk," and published by Lt. Sarichev (1826, map 3) of the Imperial Football Navy, as "Illakh." The adopted form "Ilak" was published in the 1946 supplement to the 1944 Aleutian Coast Pilot (U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, 1946, p. 120). Gramp Rock 1.5 miles west of Ilak is a breeding ground for adult sea lions. Birds of many species frequent these islands. As late as the 2000s, new species of fish have been discovered in the icy waters surrounding the island. This wildlife is under constant threat from oil spills as circulatory streams carry the crude petroleum from the major shipping lanes. In 1862, a ship carrying Russian immigrants to the Alaska mainland hit a rock off Ilak and a few survivors managed to make it to Ilak Island where they set up shelter in a cave. Starvation and exposure eventually took their lives. The

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Found ...

sponsored expeditions led by Dr. Ales Hrdlicka to the Aleutian Islands from 1936 to 1938. The team visited Ilak in 1937 and 1938. It was on the first expedition that Dr. Hrdlicka's team discovered the castaways' scattered bones in the cave. A highlight of the second expedition was the discovery of the remains of a large marine mammal which have never been conclusively identified. During the Second World War, on August 13, 1944, a U.S. Army Air Force

B-24 The Consolidated B-24 Liberator is an American heavy bomber, designed by Consolidated Aircraft of San Diego, California. It was known within the company as the Model 32, and some initial production aircraft were laid down as export models ...

Liberator from the 404th Bomb Squadron of the 11th Air Force piloted by Corbin Terry returning from a bombing mission over the Japanese held island of Paramushir ran into grave difficulty trying to return its base at

Shemya Shemya or Simiya ( ale, Samiyax̂) is a small island in the Semichi Islands group of the Near Islands chain in the Aleutian Islands archipelago southwest of Alaska, at . It has a land area of , and is about southwest of Anchorage, Alaska. It i ...

. A thick fog had made landings at all bases in the Western Aleutians impossible. Running out of fuel, two of the four massive engines on the plane stopped. Lt. Terry initially decided to ditch the plane in the ocean, but as the crew were preparing to abandon ship, radar operator T/Sgt. Oscar Gilinsky spotted the faint outline of Ilak as the ship reached the dangerously low altitude of 200 feet. Making a wheels-up emergency crash landing, the crew survived and was rescued by the Coastal Survey ship USS Patton. The aircraft's bomb sight was removed and later the plane was stripped of its guns and electronics by ship borne military personnel. The wings and tail assembly still remain on Ilak, but the fuselage was destroyed after serving as fodder for practice bombing runs.

In popular culture

Ilak figures prominently in

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal (; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his epigrammatic wit, erudition, and patrician manner. Vidal was bisexual, and in his novels and e ...

's novel, ''Williwaw'', when an army transport ship takes refuge from a storm in its bay.

References

Delarof Islands Islands of Alaska Islands of Unorganized Borough, Alaska {{AleutiansWestAK-geo-stub