Woronkofski 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 ...
of southeastern
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 United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...
. It is separated from
Wrangell Island
Wrangell Island (russian: Остров Врангеля) is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle of southeastern Alaska. It is long and wide. It has a land area of , making it the 29th largest island in the United ...
to the east by
Zimovia Strait, just west of the city of
Wrangell; to the west it is separated from
Zarembo Island
Zarembo Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeastern Alaska, United States. It lies directly south of Mitkof Island and northwest of Etolin Island. To the northwest is Kupreanof Island and to the southwest is Prince of Wales ...
by
Stikine Strait, and to the south from
Etolin Island
Etolin Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeastern Alaska, United States at . It is between Prince of Wales Island, to its west, and the Alaska mainland, to its east. It is southwest of Wrangell Island. It was first chart ...
by
Chichagof Pass. Woronkofski Island has a land area of 59.382 km
2 (22.9275 sq mi) and was unpopulated at the
2000 census. The city of Wrangell is exploring the possibility of utilizing Sunrise Lake on the island for hydroelectrical power and drinking water.
History
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 subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
an to sight the island was
James Johnstone, one of
George Vancouver's officers during his
1791-95 expedition, in 1793. He only charted its north coast, not realizing it was an island.
The island was named for Lieutenant Woronkovski of the
Imperial Russian Navy
The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...
, who explored the south coast of the
Alaska Peninsula in 1836; the name was published in 1848 on a
Russian Hydrographic Department
The Russian Hydrographic Service, full current official name Department of Navigation and Oceanography of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation ( rus, Управление навигации и океанографии Министер ...
chart as "O(strov) Voronkovskiy".
References
Woronkofski Island: Block 1029, Census Tract 3, Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area, AlaskaUnited States Census Bureau
Wrangell Community Database OnlineState of Alaska Commerce Department
Islands of the Alexander Archipelago
Islands of Wrangell, Alaska
Islands of Alaska
{{WrangellAK-geo-stub