Kuiu Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago

Alexander Archipelago

The Alexander Archipelago is a long archipelago, or group of islands, of North America off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, which are the tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep channels and fjords separate the...

 in southeastern Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

. It lies between Kupreanof Island

Kupreanof Island

Kupreanof Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska. The island is long and wide with a total land area is , making it the 13th largest island in the United States and the 170th largest island in the world. The Lindenberg Peninsula, on the southeast side of the...

, to its east, and Baranof Island

Baranof Island

Baranof Island, also sometimes called Baranov Island, Shee or Sitka Island, is an island in the northern Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle, in Alaska. The name Baranof was given in 1805 by Imperial Russian Navy captain U. F. Lisianski to honor Alexander Andreyevich Baranov...

, to its west. The island is 105 km (65.2 mi) long, and 10–23 km (6–23 miles) wide. It is nearly cut in two by Affleck Canal

Affleck Canal

Affleck Canal is an inlet in Southeast Alaska, U.S.A. It extends north from Sumner Strait, nearly cutting Kuiu Island in two. It was first charted in 1793 by Joseph Whidbey, master of the HMS Discovery during George Vancouver's 1791-95 expedition. Vancouver named it for Admiral Philip Affleck, RN....

. It has 1936.16 km² (747.6 sq mi) of land area, making it the 15th largest island in the United States. The entire island is part of Tongass National Forest

Tongass National Forest

The Tongass National Forest in southeastern Alaska is the largest national forest in the United States at 17 million acres . Most of its area is part of the temperate rain forest WWF ecoregion, itself part of the larger Pacific temperate rain forest WWF ecoregion, and is remote enough to be home...

. The population was 10 persons at the 2000 census

United States Census, 2000

The Twenty-second United States Census, known as Census 2000 and conducted by the Census Bureau, determined the resident population of the United States on April 1, 2000, to be 281,421,906, an increase of 13.2% over the 248,709,873 persons enumerated during the 1990 Census...

. It is separated from Baranof Island by Chatham Strait

Chatham Strait

Chatham Strait, or Shee ya xhaak in the Tlingit language, is a narrow passage of the Alexander Archipelago in the southeastern region of the U.S. state of Alaska. It separates Chichagof Island and Baranof Island to its west from Admiralty Island and Kuiu Island on its east.It is long and extends...

.

The Cape Decision Light

Cape Decision Light

Cape Decision is a lighthouse located on Kuiu Island adjacent to Sumner Strait in Southeast Alaska.-History:The first attempt to light these waters was an acetylene lantern placed on the Spanish Islands, just off the southern end of Kuiu Island...

 is located on Kuiu Island. Also on the island are the Kuiu Wilderness and the Tebenkof Bay Wilderness areas.

History

The island was first charted by Joseph Whidbey

Joseph Whidbey

Joseph Whidbey was a member of the Royal Navy who served on the Vancouver Expedition 1791–1795, and later achieved renown as a naval engineer. He is notable for having been the first European to discover and chart Admiralty Island in the Alexander Archipelago in 1794.Little is recorded of...

 and James Johnstone

James Johnstone (explorer)

James Johnstone was a British naval officer and explorer. He is noted for having served as sailing master of the armed tender HMS Chatham and later acting lieutenant during George Vancouver’s 1791-95 expedition to the Pacific Northwest...

, two of George Vancouver

George Vancouver

Captain George Vancouver RN was an English officer of the British Royal Navy, best known for his 1791-95 expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of contemporary Alaska, British Columbia, Washington and Oregon...

's men during his 1791-95 expedition

Vancouver Expedition

The Vancouver Expedition was a four-and-a-half-year voyage of exploration and diplomacy, commanded by Captain George Vancouver. The expedition circumnavigated the globe, touched five continents and changed the course of history for the indigenous nations and several European empires and their...

, in 1793-94. The latter, Johnstone, proved its insularity.

Sources

• http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/DTTable?_bm=y&-context=dt&-ds_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U&-CONTEXT=dt&-mt_name=DEC_2000_SF1_U_P001&-tree_id=4001&-transpose=N&-redoLog=true&-all_geo_types=N&-_caller=geoselect&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001054&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001055&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001056&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001057&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001058&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001059&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001060&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001061&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001071&-geo_id=100$10000US022800001001072&-search_results=15000US022800001001&-format=&-_lang=en&-show_geoid=YKuiu Island: Blocks 1054 thru 1061 and 1071 thru 1072, Census Tract 1, Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area, Alaska] United States Census Bureau