Revillagigedo Island ( es, Isla Revillagigedo, , , locally Revilla, ) is an

island An island or isle is a piece of subcontinental land completely surrounded by water. Very small islands such as emergent land features on atolls can be called islets, skerries, cays or keys. An island in a river or a lake island may be ...

in 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 ...

in Ketchikan Gateway Borough of the southeastern region of 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 ...

. Running about 89 km (50 mi) north-south and 48 km (35 mi) east-west, it is 2,754.835 km² (1,063.65 mi²) in area, making it the 12th largest island in the United States and the 167th largest island in the world. Its center is located near . The island is separated from the Alaska mainland to the east by Behm Canal, from Prince of Wales Island to the west by the Clarence Strait, and from Annette Island to the south by Revillagigedo Channel and Nichols Passage. The island is traditional

Tlingit The Tlingit ( or ; also spelled Tlinkit) are indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast of North America. Their language is the Tlingit language (natively , pronounced ),

territory, and by the nineteenth century was divided between the Saanyaa Ḵwáan and Taantʼa Ḵwáan tribes or subdivisions. The first

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

an recorded as having sighted it was Spanish explorer Jacinto Caamaño in 1792; it was named the following year by British naval officer

George Vancouver Post-captain, Captain George Vancouver (22 June 1757 – 10 May 1798) was a British Royal Navy officer best known for his Vancouver Expedition, 1791–1795 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern West Coast of the Un ...

for

Juan Vicente de Güemes, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo Juan Vicente de Güemes Padilla Horcasitas y Aguayo, 2nd Count of Revillagigedo (Spanish, with variant name: ''Juan Vicente de Güemes Pacheco de Padilla y Horcasitas, segundo conde de Revillagigedo'') (April 5, 1738 in Havana – May 2, 17 ...

, then viceroy of

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( es, Virreinato de Nueva España, ), or Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain during the Spanish colonization of the Am ...

(Mexico). The island's population was 13,950 as of the 2000 census. The only cities on the island are Ketchikan and Saxman, although the unincorporated community of Ward Cove and the historical community of Loring are also on the island. The principal industries are

fishing Fishing is the activity of trying to catch fish. Fish are often caught as wildlife from the natural environment, but may also be caught from stocked bodies of water such as ponds, canals, park wetlands and reservoirs. Fishing techniques ...

canning Canning is a method of food preservation in which food is processed and sealed in an airtight container ( jars like Mason jars, and steel and tin cans). Canning provides a shelf life that typically ranges from one to five years, althoug ...

, logging and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. The World Tourism Organization defines tourism ...

. In addition to the cities, several logging communities are based on barges, which move about the waterways. These serve the unconnected system of logging roads that dot the island and have access to waterfront.

References

Revillagigedo Island: Blocks 1075 to 1112, 1115 to 1120, 1122 and 1123, 1127 to 1130, 1137 to 1143, Block Group 1; and Block Groups 2 to 4, Census Tract 1; Census Tracts 2 to 4; Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska
United States Census Bureau {{authority control Islands of the Alexander Archipelago Islands of Ketchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska Islands of Alaska