Wrangell
Wrangell · USGS GNIS name record 1415843
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USGS GNIS Populated Place names in all 50 states and DC. Features in the historical extract or explicitly named historical are excluded; duplicate decision records with identical identities and coordinates are collapsed. GNIS points identify names, not legal or neighborhood boundaries, current occupancy, school attendance or a statistical population. Nearby Census places and tracts remain separately named geographies. Name completeness and currency vary; this is not a claim to include every locally used neighborhood name.
Original USGS record for Wrangell ↗Dataset snapshot 2026-09-02 · Source record edited 03/18/2010 · NAD83 · approximate source location
USGS description & history
population 18315, on N coast of Wrangell I., Alex Arch.
Wrangell began as a stockade built by the Russians occupying the island in 1834 to prevent encroachment by the Hudson's Bay Company traders "(Bridgwater and Sherwood, 1950, p. 2,175). It was called "Red(ut) Sv (ataya) Dionisiya, "meaning" "Redoubt (fort) Saint Dionysius," by the Russian Hydrographic Dept. on Chart 1396 published in 1848. In 1839 the Russians leased part of Southeast Alaska to the British who changed the name military post, called "Fort Wrangell," was established here; it was abandoned in 1877. "Fort Wrangell" post office was established in 1869; changed to Wrangell in 1902 (Ricks, 1965, p. 21, 72). Because of its location Wrangell became an important supply point for fur traders and miners beginning with the Stikine gold rush in 1861 (Alaska Sportsman, 1962, no. 12, p. 30). The population in 1890 was 316; 1000 (est.) in 1938; 948 in 1945; and 1,162 in 1950. Wrangell's ecoonomy today is dominated by the fishing and lumbering industries, maintaining three canneries and two l
Source notes may describe earlier conditions.Source files & checksums
SHA-256 20c96936a3ba430b345eed1c7395b6aab52875aac8e1e2905fab37b388cab381
SHA-256 45ad8d56b3bb4990ad8105cdda15ee7d2f07afd6941afe75b783f29b02723697
SHA-256 919fac887628b8547ec1b24fae319522a9481a56909c3914d1e0a2b56783147c