Mitkof Island is an island in the

Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal m ...

in southeast

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 ...

between

Kupreanof Island Kupreanof Island (russian: Остров Купреянова) is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. The island is long and wide with a total land area is , making it the 13th largest island in the United States and t ...

to the west and the Alaskan mainland to the east. It is approximately wide and long with a land area of , making it the 30th largest island in the United States. Much of the island is managed as part of the

Tongass National Forest The Tongass National Forest () in Southeast Alaska is the largest U.S. National Forest at . Most of its area is temperate rain forest and is remote enough to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. The Tongass, which is ...

. The island is relatively flat with numerous

muskeg Muskeg (Ojibwe: mashkiig; cr, maskīk; french: fondrière de mousse, lit. ''moss bog'') is a peat-forming ecosystem found in several northern climates, most commonly in Arctic and boreal areas. Muskeg is approximately synonymous with bog or p ...

s. The highest point is Crystal Mountain . The city of Petersburg is on the north end of the island. The total population of the island was 3,364 at the 2000 census, almost all of it in the city of Petersburg. The island is surrounded by

Frederick Sound Frederick Sound (also called Prince Frederick Sound or Prince Frederick's Sound) is a passage of water in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska that separates Kupreanof Island to the south from Admiralty Island in the north. Frederick So ...

to the north,

Dry Strait Dry Strait is an ocean strait separating Mitkof Island and Dry Island in Southeast Alaska, United States near the mouth of the Stikine River. At the time of Russian exploration in the region, the strait was known as Sukhoy Strait. The strait is ...

to the east,

Sumner Strait Sumner Strait is a strait in the Alexander Archipelago in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It is about long and wide, extending from the mouth of the Stikine River to Iphigenia Bay on the Gulf of Alaska, separating Mitkof Isl ...

to the south, and

Wrangell Narrows The Wrangell Narrows is a winding, 35-km-long (22 mi) channel between Mitkof Island and Kupreanof Island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska. The Wrangell Narrows is one of the six Listed narrows in Southeast Alaska. There are a ...

to the west. Bordered by Mitkof Island on one side, and Kuprenof and

Woewodski Island Woewodski Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago of Southeast Alaska, United States. It is separated from Kupreanof Island to the west by Duncan Canal, and Mitkof Island to the east by the Wrangell Narrows. It is named after Captain Lieu ...

s on the other, the Wrangell Narrows creates the only navigable '

Inside Passage The Inside Passage (french: Passage Intérieur) is a coastal route for ships and boats along a network of passages which weave through the islands on the Pacific Northwest coast of the North American Fjordland. The route extends from southeaste ...

' at this latitude and is one of the six Listed Narrows of

Southeast Alaska Southeast Alaska, colloquially referred to as the Alaska(n) Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia (and a small part ...

. Because of their shallow depths, the largest cruise ships do not pass through Wrangell Narrows or through Dry Strait. Spirit Creek is the southernmost stream on the island in the Wrangell Narrows, just two miles from where the narrows opens onto Sumner Strait. The first

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

an to sight the island was James Johnstone, one of

George Vancouver Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what are ...

's officers during his 1791-95 expedition, in 1793. The island is shown as separate from Kupreanof Island in an 1844 Russian chart, while the name was published in 1848 on a Russian Hydrographic Department chart as "Os(trov) Mitkova" for an Admiral Prokofy Mitkov.Владимирский след на мировой карте/Vladimir's Mark on the World Map
/ref>

References

Islands of Petersburg Borough, Alaska Islands of the Alexander Archipelago Tongass National Forest Islands of Alaska {{WrangellPetersburgAK-geo-stub