Everything about Kodiak Island totally explained
Kodiak Island is a large island on the south coast of the
U.S. state of
Alaska, separated from the Alaska mainland by the
Shelikof Strait. The largest island in the
Kodiak Archipelago and at 8975 km² (3465 square miles) in area, it's the
second largest island in the United States and the
80th largest island in the world. It is 160 km (100 miles) long and in width ranges from 16 to 96 km (10 to 60 miles). Kodiak Island is the namesake for
Kodiak Seamount, which lies off the coast at the
Aleutian Trench.
Kodiak Island is mountainous and heavily forested in the north and east, but fairly treeless on the south. The island has many ice-free, deep
bays that provide sheltered anchorages for boats. The southwestern two-thirds of the island, like much of the Kodiak Archipelago, is part of
Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge.
Kodiak Island is part of the
Kodiak Island Borough of Alaska. The largest town on the island is
Kodiak. Other settlements include the villages of
Akhiok,
Old Harbor,
Karluk,
Larsen Bay,
Port Lions, and
Ouzinkie. Kodiak is also home to the largest
U.S. Coast Guard base, which includes
Integrated Support Command Kodiak, Air Station Kodiak, Communications Station Kodiak, and Aids to Navigation Station Kodiak.
The
Kodiak Bear and the
king crab are native to the island. The
fishing industry is the most important economic activity on the island;
fisheries include
Pacific salmon,
Pacific halibut, and
crab. The
Karluk River is famous for its salmon run. Logging, ranching, numerous canneries, and some copper mining are also prevalent.
History
Kodiak is the ancestral land of the
Koniaga, an
Alutiiq nation of
Alaska Natives. The original inhabitants subsisted by hunting, fishing, farming, and gathering. The first outsiders to settle on the island were Russian explorers under
Grigory Shelikhov, who founded a
Russian settlement on Kodiak Island at
Three Saints Bay near the present-day village of Old Harbor in 1784. Following the
1867 Alaska purchase the island became part of the
United States; Americans settled there and engaged in hunting and fox farming.
The Koniagas had been studied by European explorers, who marveled at their practice of male concubinage: "A Kodiak mother will select her handsomest and most promising boy, and dress and rear him as a girl, teaching him only domestic duties, keeping him at women's work, associating him with women and girls, in order to render his effeminacy complete. Arriving at the age of ten or fifteen years, he's married to some wealthy man who regards such a companion as a great acquisition. These male concubines are called
Achnutschik or
Schopans'" (
Richard Francis Burton in his
Terminal Essay, after
Holmberg,
Langsdorff,
Joseph Billings,
Choris,
Yuri Lisiansky and
Marchand)
Kodiak Island was explored in 1763 by Russian fur trader Stephan Glotov. The island was the location of the first permanent Russian settlement in Alaska, founded by
Grigory Shelikhov, a fur trader, on
Three Saints Bay in 1784. The settlement was moved to the site of present-day
Kodiak in 1792 and became the center of Russian fur trading. In 1912 the eruption of
Novarupta on the mainland (erroneously attributed at one time to the more famous
Mount Katmai) blanketed the island with volcanic ash, causing widespread destruction and loss of life. The island was also hit by the 1964
Good Friday Earthquake and tsunami, which destroyed much of the town.
Publications related to Kodiak Island Fishing
Further Information
Get more info on 'Kodiak Island'.
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