Suemez Island is located 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. It resides in the west-central coast of Prince of Wales Island. The northern tip of

Dall Island Dall Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago off the southeast coast of Alaska, just west of Prince of Wales Island and north of Canadian waters. Its peak elevation is above sea level. Its land area is , making it the 28th largest isl ...

lies to its southeast, while

Baker Island Baker Island, formerly known as New Nantucket, is an uninhabited atoll just north of the Equator in the central Pacific Ocean about southwest of Honolulu. The island lies almost halfway between Hawaii and Australia. Its nearest neighbor is Ho ...

lies to its northwest. Suemez Island has a land area of 151.713 km² (58.5768 sq mi) and was unpopulated at the 2000 census. The Tlevak Strait-Suemez Island volcano at 55°15′0″N, 133°18′0″W is 50 metres (164 feet) high. Suemez Island was named sometime between 1775 and 1779 by

Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra (22 May 1743 – 26 March 1794) was a Spanish Criollo naval officer operating in the Americas. Assigned to the Pacific coast Spanish Naval Department base at San Blas, in Viceroyalty of New Spain (present ...

and

Francisco Antonio Mourelle Francisco Antonio Mourelle de la Rúa (July 17, 1750 – May 24, 1820) was a Spanish naval officer and explorer from Galicia serving the Spanish crown. He was born in 1750 at San Adrián de Corme (Corme Aldea, Ponteceso), near A Coruña, Galic ...

as "Isla Suemez".

Dionisio Alcalá Galiano Dionisio Alcalá Galiano (8 October 1760 – 21 October 1805) was a Spanish naval officer, cartographer, and explorer. He mapped various coastlines in Europe and the Americas with unprecedented accuracy using new technology such as chronomete ...

called it "Guemes" in his map published in 1802, which may be the proper spelling. The name "Guemes" honors Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo,

Viceroy A viceroy () is an official who reigns over a polity in the name of and as the representative of the monarch of the territory. The term derives from the Latin prefix ''vice-'', meaning "in the place of" and the French word ''roy'', meaning "k ...

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

from 1789 to 1794. It is the only place in the world where the Suemez Island ermine (''Mustela haidarum seclusa'') can be found.

References

Islands of the Alexander Archipelago Islands of Prince of Wales–Hyder Census Area, Alaska Uninhabited islands of Alaska Volcanoes of Unorganized Borough, Alaska Volcanoes of Alaska Islands of Alaska Islands of Unorganized Borough, Alaska Landforms of Prince of Wales–Hyder Census Area, Alaska {{PrinceofWalesHyderAK-geo-stub