Wrangell, Alaska
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Wrangell is a city located in Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area, Alaska. As of the 2000 census, the population of the city is 2,308. Its Tlingit name is Kaachxaana.áak'w, and the Tlingit people residing in the Wrangell area call themselves the Kaachxaana.áak;w Kwáan, or alternately the Shtax'héen Kwáan after the nearby Stikine River.
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Geography
AKMap-doton-Wrangell.PNG
Location of Wrangell, Alaska
Wrangell is located at 56°27'23" North, 132°22'40" West (56.456383, -132.377755)Template:GR.
Wrangell is located on the northern tip of Wrangell Island, an island in the Alaska Panhandle. It is 250 km (155 miles) south of the Alaskan capital of Juneau. It is across the narrow Zimovia Strait from the mouth of the Stikine River on the Alaska mainland. The town is named after the island, which was named after Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, a Russian explorer and the administrator of the Russian-American Company from 1840 to 1849.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 183.5 km² (70.8 mi²). 117.3 km² (45.3 mi²) of it is land and 66.2 km² (25.6 mi²) of it is water. The total area is 36.10% water.
Demographics
As of the censusTemplate:GR of 2000, there are 2,308 people, 907 households, and 623 families residing in the city. The population density is 19.7/km² (51.0/mi²). There are 1,092 housing units at an average density of 9.3/km² (24.1/mi²). The racial makeup of the city is 73.48% White, 0.13% Black or African American, 15.51% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 0.35% from other races, and 9.75% from two or more races. 1.00% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 907 households out of which 35.7% have children under the age of 18 living with them, 54.9% are married couples living together, 9.4% have a female householder with no husband present, and 31.3% are non-families. 26.5% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.6% have someone living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is 2.52 and the average family size is 3.05.
In the city the population is spread out with 29.4% under the age of 18, 5.2% from 18 to 24, 27.3% from 25 to 44, 26.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 39 years. For every 100 females there are 106.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there are 102.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $43,250, and the median income for a family is $54,167. Males have a median income of $43,846 versus $29,205 for females. The per capita income for the city is $21,851. 9.0% of the population and 7.3% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the total population, 11.0% of those under the age of 18 and 9.3% of those 65 and older are living below the poverty line.
History
Wrangell is one of the oldest non-Native settlements in Alaska. In 1811, the Russians began fur trading with area Tlingit at the site of present-day Wrangell. In 1834, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, then head of Russian government interests in Russian America, ordered a stockade built near the Tlingit Kiks.ádi clan house of Chief Shakes that was located about 13 miles (20 km) north of the large Tlingit village of Kotzlitzna. The stockade, named Redoubt Saint Dionysius, was on the location of present-day Wrangell. The British Hudson's Bay Company leased the fort in 1840 and named the stockade Fort Stikine.
The Tlingits had used the Stikine River as a trade route to in interior since ancient times and they protested when the Hudson Bay Company began to use their trade routes. However, two epidemics of smallpox, in 1836 and 1840, reduced the Tlingit population in the area by half and silenced most of the protest.
The fort was abandoned in 1849 after the area sea otter and beaver stocks were depleted. It remained under British rule until Alaska's purchase by the United States in 1867.
In 1868, a U. S. military post called Fort Wrangell was built at the site. The community around the post continued to grow through commerce with gold prospectors in the gold rushes of 1861, 1874 - 1877 and 1897. As in Skagway, many gambling halls, dance halls and bars were built. Thousands of miners traveled up the Stikine River into the Cassiar District of British Columbia during 1874, and again to the Klondike in 1897.
Having been under the jurisdiction of the Russians, the English, and the Americans, as well as having originally been Tlingit territory, Wrangell has the unique status of the only Alaskan city to have been governed under four "flags".
Fish traps were constructed in the late 1890s on the nearby mouth of the Stikine River and in the Zimovia Straits. These contributed to the growth of the fishing and fish canning industries in Wrangell, which provided much of the economic support for the town before the rise of logging in the 1950s. The fish traps caused severe damage to the Stikine River salmon runs, and had deleterious effects on salmon fishing in the region. All fish traps in Alaska were decommissioned by the new government after statehood, however the fishing industry remained strong and continues to be the primary profession of many residents.
A severe fire in the early 1950s burned much of the downtown area, including the renowned Bear Totem Store which housed innumerable examples of Tlingit arts and crafts, as well as a number of irreplaceable totem poles.
Currently, logging, fishing and tourism are the mainstays of the Wrangell area economy. One of the last two major saw mills in Southeast Alaska, is operated by the Silver Bay Logging Company just south of the city proper.
The town has always been a major home to people of the Tlingit Kiks.ádi clan, and a 70 year old Chief Shakes tribal house still stands on the original location of the Shakes house, a small island now inside of the Wrangell harbor. Until it was built, the Kiks.ádi had occupied the island since time immemorial. Today the Wrangell Cooperative Association, a Tlingit village corporation, maintains the site as well as the Totem Park near the city center.