Simeonof Wilderness

Simeonof Wilderness is a protected area on Simeonof Island in Alaska’s Shumagin Islands, designated by Congress in 1976 and managed within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The island carried earlier Aleut and Russian names before W. H. Dall of the United States Coast Survey gave it its first English name in 1872. Its later human use included cattle and fox ranching from about 1890 to 1930, a brief return of cattle in 1960, and removal of an oversized herd in 1985. A wildlife refuge had already been created there in 1958, recognizing the Shumagin Islands as important breeding grounds for sea otters and the need to protect their reduced populations.

Sand Point, Alaska · United States