Alexander Archipelago

The Alexander Archipelago is a three hundred-mile chain of about eleven hundred islands off southeastern Alaska, forming a rugged Pacific fringe of steep, forested islands divided by deep channels and fjords. Most lie within Tongass National Forest and are reached mainly by boat or airplane, with Ketchikan and Sitka the largest towns. The region is the homeland of the Tlingit and Kaigani Haida peoples, and Annette Island is also home to Tsimshian people who came from British Columbia in the late nineteenth century. Explored by Russians, Spaniards, and George Vancouver’s crews, the archipelago later became a Maritime Fur Trade center and passed to the United States in eighteen sixty-seven.

Kake, Alaska · United States