Isanotski Strait

The village of False Pass, Alaska on Isanotski Strait

Isanotski Strait is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska. Isanax̂ (variously spelled Issannakh, Isanak etc.) is the Aleut name for present day Isanotski Strait and means gap, hole, rent, or tear in the Aleut language which was rendered as Isanotski (or Issanakskie, Isanotskoi, Isanakh etc.) in transliterated Russian. The strait appears as Исанакъ in 1802 and Исаноцкый in 1844 on Russian maps.[1][2][3] Isanotski Strait lies between the tip of the Alaska Peninsula and Unimak Island, the first of the Aleutian Islands and it connects the northern Gulf of Alaska with the Bering Sea. This strait was used for safe passage for millennia by Aleuts and later by the Russians during their occupation of the area. The strait is used today by most vessels less than 200 feet in length traveling to and from northern Alaska and points in southwest and southeast Alaska and the "lower 48" states.[4] The city of False Pass, Alaska is situated on Isanotski Strait.[5]

Ikatan Bay in foreground; entrance to Isanotski Strait in the background

Ikatan Bay and Isanotski Strait separate Unimak Island from the Alaska Peninsula. They have been used by light-draft craft, intended for service on the Yukon River, in making the passage from Puget Sound ports to St. Michael. Isanotski Strait has its southerly entrance at the northwest end of Ikatan Bay. Traders Cove, on the eastern side of Isanotski Strait about 7 miles above its entrance from Ikatan Bay, is a good anchorage. Morzhovoi, a mission and native village, is on the south side. The mean rise and fall of tides in Ikatan Bay is 4.5 feet. In the narrow southern part of Isanotski Strait the tidal currents have a velocity of 7 to 9 miles or more, and it is said that there is practically no slack and that the current turns about three hours after high or low water in Ikatan Bay.[6]

The pass has been navigated to some extent by light-draft craft built in Puget Sound ports for service on the Yukon River circa 1900. It was the practice for these vessels to go through the inland passages of Southeast Alaska, out through Cross Sound, and coast around, watching the weather, going behind the islands off Alaska Peninsula and through Isanotski Strait or Unimak Pass. Isanotski Strait was preferable to Unimak Pass for light-draft river vessels because it was nearer and had many sheltered anchorages and places where fresh water could be obtained. The northern entrance, has strong tidal currents, which are affected by strong northerly or southerly winds. There is a very extensive shoal, or flat, in the northern and widest portion of the strait, lying to the eastward of the channel way and southward of the outlet into Bering Sea. Just outside of this outlet, at a distance of between 1–2 miles (1.6–3.2 km), is a line of shoals, with breakers, which extend from the northeast point of Unimak Island in a northeasterly direction for 5–6 miles (8.0–9.7 km) parallel with the coast.[5]

References

  1. ↑ Vilbrekht, A.: Karta morskikh otkrytīi Rosīiskimi moreplavateliami na Tikhom i Ledovitom moriakh, 1802, Norris Peter Co., Washington, D.C., 1898, L.C.
  2. ↑ Karta Ledovitago moria i Vostochnago okeana, Hydrographic Department, St. Petersburg?, 1844, L.C.
  3. ↑ Baker, Marcus: Geographic Dictionary of Alaska, United States Geological Survey, Bulletin No. 299, Series F, Geography 52, Second Edition, USGPO, Washington, 1906
  4. ↑ Black, Lydia (1999). The History and Ethnohistory of the Aleutians East Borough, Chapter 4: False Pass, An Ethnography, by Lydia Black & Jerry Jacka. Fairbanks, Alaska: Limestone Press.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; Jarvis, D. H. (1900). Alaska: Coast Pilot Notes on the Fox Islands Passes, Unalaska Bay, Bering Sea, and Arctic Ocean as Far as Point Barrow (Public domain ed.). U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 14–.
  6. ↑ U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey; Graves, Herbert Cornelius (1916). United States Coast Pilot: Alaska. Part II. Yakutat Bay to Arctic Ocean (Public domain ed.). U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 191–.

Coordinates: 54°49′46″N 163°22′49″W / 54.829372°N 163.380372°W

External links