Have You Heard About Wrangell?
As our ship continued its journey, it arrived at the island called Wrangell, which has a very interesting history. For five thousand years before the arrival of outside people, it was occupied by the Tlingit Native Americans. It was Russian Czar (Emperor) Peter the Great, whose colonization ambitions brought the Russians there. The purpose was to find new sources of furs, which were sold to China in exchange for tea, that traded currency with the British, which in turn led to the development of the town known today as Wrangell. This started in 1725, when Vitus Jonassen Bering, a Danish cartographer and explorer in the Russian service, was sent to what became known as Alaska. The first voyage was foiled by ice and fog.
The second, known as the Kamchatka Expedition, lasted from 1733 till 1743, under the guidance of two Russian Empresses – Anna and Elizabeth. In 1741, Bering was able to reach what became known as Russian America. New maps allowed Europeans to discover Alaska as well, which in turn led to future historical developments. In 1867, to prevent the British, who were Russia’s enemy during the Crimean War, from getting hold of Alaska, the Russians, who ran out of money, decided to sell Alaska to their “friend”, America. Perhaps there is some inaccuracy in my description of the process; nevertheless, in 1849, the Russians discovered an island, which is today considered the largest in the world.
When it became American territory in 1867, it was named after Baron Wrangell, the last Russian Governor of Alaska. It was born in furs, raised on gold and today its economy is based on fishing and tourism and has a population of about 2,500.
These three images share a little bit of our experience.
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