The Delarof Islands (; ) (ca. ) are a group of small islands at the extreme western end of the

Andreanof Islands The Andreanof Islands (, ) are a group of islands in the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska, United States. They are located at about 52° North and 172°57' to 179°09' West. Geography The Andreanof Islands are located between Amchitka Pas ...

group in the central

Aleutian Islands The Aleutian Islands ( ; ; , "land of the Aleuts"; possibly from the Chukchi language, Chukchi ''aliat'', or "island")—also called the Aleut Islands, Aleutic Islands, or, before Alaska Purchase, 1867, the Catherine Archipelago—are a chain ...

Alaska Alaska ( ) is a non-contiguous U.S. state on the northwest extremity of North America. Part of the Western United States region, it is one of the two non-contiguous U.S. states, alongside Hawaii. Alaska is also considered to be the north ...

. The Delarofs consist of 11 named islands (from West to East): Amatignak, Unalga (Unalĝa), Tanadak (Tanaadax̂),

Ulak ''The Messenger'' () is a 2007 Turkish drama film, written and directed by Çağan Irmak, which follows a man who travels from village to village to tell children stories about a messenger named İbrahim. The film, which was selected for film fest ...

, Gareloi, Kavalga (Qavalĝa), Ogliuga (Aglaga), Skagul (Sxaĝulax̂), the Tag (Tagachaluĝis), Ugidak (Qagan-tanax̂), and Ilak. The northern- and southern-most named Delarof Islands are Gareloi Island and Amatignak Island respectively. The islands were named after the 18th century

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

explorer and first '' de facto''

Governor of Alaska A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the type of political region or polity, a ''governor'' ma ...

, Evstratios Ioannou Delarof (''Ευστράτιος Ιωάννου Ντελάρωφ''). These islands are separated from the remainder of the Andreanofs by Tanaga Pass to the east and from

Amchitka Amchitka (; ;) is a volcanic, tectonically unstable and uninhabited island in the Rat Islands group of the Aleutian Islands in southwest Alaska. It is part of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge. The island, with a land area of ro ...

and Semisopochnoi (the easternmost of the

Rat Islands The Rat Islands (,) are a group of American High islands, volcanic islands in the Aleutian Islands in southwestern Alaska, between Buldir Island and the Near Islands group to its west, and Amchitka Pass and the Andreanof Islands group to its e ...

) by Amchitka Pass to the west. All of these islands are managed as part of the Aleutian Islands Unit of the

Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge The Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge (often shortened to Alaska Maritime or AMNWR) is a United States National Wildlife Refuge comprising 2,400 islands, headlands, rocks, islets, spires and reefs in Alaska, with a total area of , of wh ...

. The Delarof Islands together have a land area of 63.842 sq mi (165.349 km²). None of the islands are populated. The Delarof Islands were named in 1836 by Captain

Fyodor Petrovich Litke Fyodor, Fedor () or Feodor is the Russian-language form of the originally Greek-language name "Theodore" () meaning "God's gift" or "god-given". Fedora () is the feminine form. "Fyodor" and "Fedor" are two English transliterations of the same Ru ...

of the

Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until being dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution and the declaration of ...

. He named them after Greek-born administrator Eustrate Ivanovich Delarof (also spelled

Evstratii Ivanovich Delarov Evstratii Ivanovich Delarov (also spelled Evstrat Delarov and Eustrate Delarof, c. 1740 – 1806, ) was a Greek mariner who served with several Russian maritime fur trade companies in Russian America. He was born in Ottoman Macedonia. He was t ...

), who was the chief manager of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company (precursor of the

Russian-American Company The Russian-American Company Under the High Patronage of His Imperial Majesty was a state-sponsored chartered company formed largely on the basis of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company, United American Company. Emperor Paul I of Russia chartered the c ...

) from 1787 to 1791.Long-Forgotten Greek Alaskan
, Preservation of American Hellenic History

References

;Other sources *Orth, Donald J. 1971. ''Dictionary of Alaskan place names''. U.S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 567, 1083 pp.
Delarof Islands: Blocks 1134 thru 1137, Census Tract 1, Aleutians West Census Area, Alaska
United States Census Bureau

External links

* Andreanof Islands Islands of Alaska Islands of Unorganized Borough, Alaska {{AleutiansWestAK-geo-stub