Unalaska, Alaska

The City of Unalaska (; Unalaska is the second-largest city in the Unorganized Borough, behind Bethel.

The Aleut (Unangan) people have lived on Unalaska Island for thousands of years.

History

thumb|left|The port of Unalaska in 1816.

thumb|left|Aerial view of the Point Kadin vents, a series of post-glacial explosion pits and small cinder cones that occur along a fracture zone northwest of the summit of Makushin Volcano.

The island of Unalaska was first inhabited by the Aleut people.

Unalaska and Amaknak islands contained 24 settlements with more than 1,000 Aleut inhabitants in 1759, when the first Russian group under Stepan Glotov came and started trading for three years on Umnak and Unalaska. Between 1763 and 1766, a conflict between the Russian fur traders and the Unalaska Natives occurred; the Aleuts destroyed four Russian ships and killed 175 hunters/traders. In the 1760s, Unalaska was temporarily used as a Russian fur trading post.

Alexander Andreyevich Baranov was shipwrecked here in 1790.

thumb|Russian Orthodox church and town, June 1906

In 1825, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Ascension was built in Unalaska. The founding priest, Ivan Veniaminov, later canonized as Saint Innocent of Alaska, composed the first Aleut writing system with local assistance, and translated scripture into Aleut. Between 1836 and 1840, measles, chicken-pox and whooping-cough epidemics drastically reduced the population; thus, at the end of the decade, only 200 to 400 Aleuts lived in Unalaska.

On October 18, 1867, the United States purchased Alaska, which made Unalaska part of the U.S. territory.

In 1880, the Methodist Church opened a school and a clinic for orphans in Unalaska. Between 1899 and 1905, the Gold Rush brought many ships through Dutch Harbor, where the North American Commercial Company had a coaling station.

thumb|Unalaska, June 1906

During the first half of the century, the island was touched by numerous epidemics. The first epidemic occurred in 1900; in 1919, the Spanish flu touched the island. These epidemics contributed to a dramatic decrease of the population in Unalaska.

Fearing the threat from Imperial Japan during World War II, the neutral United States began fortifying Dutch Harbor in 1940, resulting in the construction of the Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and Fort Mears. Construction finished entirely by September 1941, three months before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that caused the U.S. to enter the war. On June 3, 1942, the town was attacked by Japanese air forces in the Battle of Dutch Harbor, part of the Aleutian Islands Campaign. After the attack and the Japanese occupations of Kiska and Attu, almost all of the native residents of Amaknak Island were evacuated. Many were held under poor conditions in camps in Southeast Alaska for the duration of the war; a substantial number of the internees died during the imprisonment. Winds in excess of 100 knots caused the shipwreck of in 1997.

Recent history

thumb|left|Unalaska view in 1972 with the collapsed buildings of the closed naval base in the foreground

The city has struggled with problems like alcoholism and unemployment in the past; while these problems still persist, the situation has improved in recent years. One example is the Elbow Room, a bar which locally, and later abroad, became infamous for its raucousness. It was closed in 2005.

Geography

thumb|Satellite shot of the islands of Umnak (left) and Unalaska (right).

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , of which is land and (47.71%) is water.

Makushin Volcano () is located on the island; it is not quite visible from within the town of Unalaska, though the steam rising from its cone is visible on the rare clear day. By climbing one of the smaller hills in the area, such as Pyramid Peak or Mount Newhall, it is possible to get a good look at the snow-covered cone.

Paleontology

A major find was announced in 2015 after scientists examined a group of giant tusked quadruped marine mammal fossils. The species had been unearthed during excavation for the construction of a school. They are unique shore dwellers belonging to the extinct order Desmostylia, and possibly related to Proboscidea or Sirenia. A rendition of a group was drawn by Alaskan artist Ray Troll.

Climate

As in all of the Aleutian islands in the south of Akutan Island (32 °F or 0 °C isotherm) the climate of Unalaska is subpolar oceanic (Cfc), with moderate and fairly uniform temperatures and heavy precipitation. Winters are consistently cold, but relatively mild in comparison to other parts of the state. Summers are cool, with most afternoons only reaching highs of to . Fog is often present even when it is not raining. Summer weather is around cooler than Southeast Alaska (Sitka), but the winter temperatures are nearly the same, although despite the higher latitudes of cities such as Sitka and Ketchikan, both of the two cities have warmer winters than Unalaska.

The mean annual temperature for Unalaska is , being about in January and in August. The coldest recorded month was February 1984, with a mean temperature of , while the warmest month was August 2019 at ; the annual mean temperature has ranged from in 1916 to in 2016. The coldest daytime maximum recorded is and the annual mean coldest day is .

|source 2 = National Weather Service

{|style="width:90%;text-align:center;font-size:100%;line-height:1.2em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto" class="wikitable"

!Colspan=14|Climate data for Dutch Harbor, Unalaska, Alaska

!Month

!Jan

!Feb

!Mar

!Apr

!May

!Jun

!Jul

!Aug

!Sep

!Oct

!Nov

!Dec

!style="border-left-width:medium"|Year

!Average sea temperature °C (°F)

| style="background:#000080; color:#ffffff;"|4 (39)

| style="background:#000080; color:#ffffff;"|5 (41)

| style="background:#0000ff; color:#ffffff;"|6 (43)

| style="background:#0000ff; color:#ffffff;"|8 (46)

| style="background:#0000ff; color:#ffffff;"|9 (48)

| style="background:#0000ff; color:#ffffff;"|7 (45)

| style="background:#0000ff; color:#ffffff;"|6 (43)

| style="background:#000080; color:#ffffff;"|5 (41)

| style="background:#0000ff; color:#ffffff; border-left-width:medium;"|5.6 (42.1)

!Mean daily daylight hours

| style="background:#f0f011; color:#000;"|8

| style="background:#ffff05; color:#000;"|10

| style="background:#ffff33; color:#000;"|12

| style="background:#ffff55; color:#000;"|14

| style="background:#ffff77; color:#000;"|16

| style="background:#ffff88; color:#000;"|17

| style="background:#ffff77; color:#000;"|16

| style="background:#ffff66; color:#000;"|15

| style="background:#ffff44; color:#000;"|13

| style="background:#ffff05; color:#000;"|10

| style="background:#f7f722; color:#000;"|9

| style="background:#f0f000; color:#000;"|7

| style="background:#ffff36; color:#000;"|12.3

!Average Ultraviolet index

| style="background:#808080; color:#ffffff;"|0

| style="background:#289500; color:#000;"|1

| style="background:#289500; color:#000;"|2

| style="background:#f7e400; color:#000;"|3

| style="background:#f7e400; color:#000;"|5

| style="background:#f85900; color:#000;"|6

| style="background:#f7e400; color:#000;"|5

| style="background:#f7e400; color:#000;"|3

| style="background:#289500; color:#000;"|2

| style="background:#289500; color:#000;"|1

| style="background:#808080; color:#ffffff;"|0

| style="background:#f7e400; color:#000; border-left-width:medium;"|3

!Colspan=14 style="background:#f8f9fa;font-weight:normal;font-size:95%;"|Source: weather2travel

Note

Demographics

External links

Unalaska/Port of Dutch Harbor Convention and Visitors Bureau
Museum of the Aleutians, which can be found in Unalaska
Nautical Chart: Unalaska Island to Amukta Island, centered on Dutch Harbor

Articles

The US island that once belonged to Russia: Unalaska Island in the remote Aleutian archipelago was part of an epic, but now mostly forgotten, military campaign during World War II. By John Zada, July 25, 2018, bbc.com.