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Admiralty Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in Alaska Panhandle. It is 145 km (90 mi) long and 56 km (35 mi) wide with an area of 4,264.1 km2 (1,646.4 sq mi), making it the seventh-largest island in the United States and the 132nd largest island in the world. It is one of the ABC islands in Alaska. The island is nearly cut in two by the Seymour Canal; to its east is the long, narrow Glass Peninsula. It's separated from Kupreanof Island in the south by Frederick Sound. Most of Admiralty Island—955,747 acres (3,868 km2)—is protected as the Admiralty Island National Monument administered by the Tongass National Forest. The Kootznoowoo Wilderness encompasses vast stands of old-growth temperate rainforest. These forests provide some of the best habitat available to species such as brown bears, bald eagles, and Sitka black-tailed deer.
Angoon, a traditional Tlingit community home to 572 people, is the only settlement on the island, although an unpopulated section of the city of Juneau comprises 264.68 km2 (102.19 sq mi) (6.2 percent) of the island's land area near its northern end. The island's total population at the 2000 census was 650.
The national monument is sacred to the Angoon Community Association, a Tlingit tribe, who live in Angoon on the western coast of the island. The Tlingits fought to make protection for the island a part of ANILCA legislation, and continue to engage in stewardship of the island's natural resources. Many of Angoon's residents make daily subsistence use of the national monument.Admiralty Island National Monument/Kootznoowoo Wilderness, USDA Forest Service, MB-R10-190. (1992)
The island was named by British naval officer George Vancouver in honor of his Royal Navy employers, the Admiralty. Joseph Whidbey, master of the Discovery during Vancouver's 1791–95 expedition, explored it in July–August 1794, in the process circumnavigating it.
The Admiralty Island National Monument was created December 1, 1978, by President Jimmy Carter. In the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act Congress designated all but (74 km2) of the monument as the Kootznoowoo Wilderness, ensuring that the vast bulk of this monument is permanently protected from development. The monument is administered by the U.S. Forest Service from offices in Juneau.
In 1986 it was named a biosphere reserve along with Glacier Bay National Park under the Man and the Biosphere Programme.
The Pack Creek Brown Bear Viewing Area offers visitors the opportunity to observe brown bears in their natural habitat as they fish for salmon and interact with one another during the summer months. Permits are required for all visitors to Pack Creek; they can be obtained through the Forest Service.
Over recent decades, various fishing and outdoor recreation lodges have opened up on the island with most of these lodges operating in the Tlingit town of Angoon. There’s also one lodge on a small, privately held plot of land within the national monument.
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