Pennock Island is located in the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S. ...

near the city of

Ketchikan Ketchikan ( ; tli, Kichx̱áan) is a city in and the borough seat of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough of Alaska. It is the state's southeasternmost major settlement. Downtown Ketchikan is a National Historic District. With a population at the 20 ...

. The island is situated within the

Ketchikan Gateway Borough Ketchikan Gateway Borough is a borough located in the U.S. state of Alaska. As of the 2020 census its population was 13,948, up from 13,477 in 2010. The borough seat is Ketchikan. The borough is the second most populous borough in Southeast A ...

and is part of the

Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago (russian: Архипелаг Александра) is a long archipelago (group of islands) in North America lying off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, the tops of submerged coastal m ...

. Most of the island is public land managed by the

Tongass National Forest The Tongass National Forest () in Southeast Alaska is the largest U.S. National Forest at . Most of its area is temperate rain forest and is remote enough to be home to many species of endangered and rare flora and fauna. The Tongass, which is ...

.Third Annual Pennock Island Challenge Raises Funds for the American Diabetes Association
Stories in the News, Aug. 31, 2006

Geography

Pennock Island lies between

Gravina Island Gravina Island is an island in the Gravina Islands of the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. It is long and about wide, with a land area of . The island had a population of 50 people at the 2000 census. The Spanish explorer Jacint ...

and

Revillagigedo Island Revillagigedo Island ( es, Isla Revillagigedo, , , locally Revilla, ) is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in Ketchikan Gateway Borough of the southeastern region of the U.S. state of Alaska. Running about 89 km (50 mi) north-s ...

at the eastern end of

Tongass Narrows Tongass Narrows is a Y-shaped channel, part of Southeast Alaska's Inside Passage. The waterway forms part of the Alaska Marine Highway and as such, is used by charter, commercial fishing, and recreational vessels, as well as commercial freight b ...

, dividing the waterway into its East and West Channels. It measures about in length east and west, and from in width. It is rather low and wooded; its south shore is steep. California Rock is about from the east end of the island. East Clump islet is situated off the island's west end. Peninsula Point, which is west of Pennock, is the eastern entrance point to Ward Cove. Pennock reef extends to a length of into the Tongass Narrows and is to the south west of

, opposite its downtown. The village of Pennock is located near Whiskey Cove, across from the Coast Guard Station Ketchikan. A few houses are tucked within the thick wooded forest; there is minimal human habitation.

History

It was named for the prospector Homer Pennock, around 1895 by Captain W.E. George, a local pilot. The ancestral tribal burial ground of the ''Taan ta Kwaan'' (

Tongass people Tongass may refer to: * Fort Tongass * Tongass people, or Taantʼa Ḵwáan, "Sea Lion Tribe", one of the main divisions of the Tlingit people and the namesake of all other "Tongass" names. * Tongass Highway * Tongass Island * Tongass Narrows, a ...

) and the ''Sanyaa Kwáan'' ( Cape Fox people) are located on Pennock Island. The island is set in Tongass Narrows, which became the subject of national controversy over the

Gravina Island Bridge The Gravina Island Bridge, commonly referred to as the "Bridge to Nowhere", was a proposed bridge to replace the ferry that currently connects the town of Ketchikan, Alaska, United States, with Gravina Island, an island that contains the Ketchikan ...

proposal, criticized as the "

bridge to nowhere A bridge to nowhere is a bridge where one or both ends are broken, incomplete, or unconnected to any roads. If it is an overpass or an interchange, the term overpass to nowhere or interchange to nowhere may be used respectively. There are fi ...

Demographics

Pennock Island first appeared on the 1940 U.S. Census as an unincorporated settlement. It did not appear again until 1970. It was made a census-designated place (CDP) in 1980, but was dissolved in 1990 and has not appeared on the census separately since.

Sports event

Pennock Island is the venue for the annual "Pennock Island Challenge" swim race which was started in 2004. The event is held to raise funds for the

JDRF JDRF is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that funds type 1 diabetes (T1D) research, provides a broad array of community and activist services to the T1D population and actively advocates for regulation favorable to medical research and approval o ...

. The race course covers a distance of in a circular pattern around the rugged island. Events consist of solo race, relay race, wet suit and non-wet suit teams. Escort boats and kayak escorts are essential. Swimmers participating in the race are cold water specialists as water temperature during the race is likely to be between . The 2013 event was held on 4 August. The winner of the race is awarded a certificate recording the time and place and also awarded a medal.

References

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External links