Murder Cove | |
|---|---|
Cove | |
 Whale at mooring, August 1910 | |
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  Murder Cove Location in Alaska | |
| Coordinates: 57°01′45″N134°33′20″W / 57.02917°N 134.55556°W | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Alaska |
| Time zone | UTC-9 (Alaska (AKST)) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-8 (AKDT) |
Murder Cove is located at the southernmost portion of Admiralty Island in the U.S. state of Alaska. The cove was home to the Tyee Company whaling station and was known for whaling operations from 1907 through 1913.
The area was named Murder Cove after two gold prospectors were murdered in the area in 1869 as revenge for the killing of two Tlingit tribesmen. [1] In retaliation the USS Saginaw destroyed three villages and two wooden forts near present-day Kake, Alaska. [2] [3] This unopposed destruction of villages and forts by the US Government became known as the Kake War.
Commercial operations in fishing and sea hunting were established inside the bay at Point Gardner by the Tyee Company who sought to take advantage of the unexploited waters of southeast Alaska. [1] [4] They established their operations on Admiralty Island at Murder Cove in 1907 using the first American-built steam-powered whaler, the 97-foot Tyee Junior, which was equipped with a harpoon gun on the bow. Consequent to a declining whale population, the company closed its operations in 1913. [4] [5]
In 1905, the most extensive coal exploration in southeastern Alaska occurred at Murder Cove, Kootznahoo Inlet, and Hamilton Bay. The Tertiary-aged coal-bearing formations are made up of conglomerate, sandstone, and shale. The Murder Cove explorations occurred on a 5 feet (1.5 m) thick seam located 2 miles (3.2 km) from deep water. Though this deposit contains the best grade of coal in the region, further development did not proceed because of its very limited size. [6] A lighthouse was established at Murder Cover during the fiscal year 1914. [7]
It forms a narrow inlet 2 miles (3.2 km) in length. Just inside the entrance of the bay are several islands, beyond which the channel contracts to a width of 300 feet (91 m) and then opens to form a sheet of water which at high tide is .5 miles (0.80 km) wide and 1 mile (1.6 km) long. This bay forms a well-protected harbor for vessels of moderate size. [8] At its rocky entrance is the Surprise Harbor, which provides safe anchorage and vistas of the area. [1]
Southeast Alaska, often abbreviated to Southeast or Southeastern, and sometimes called the Alaska(n) Panhandle, is the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska, bordered to the east and north by the northern half of the Canadian province of British Columbia. The majority of Southeast Alaska is situated in Tlingit Aaní, much of which is part of the Tongass National Forest, the United States' largest national forest. In many places, the international border runs along the crest of the Boundary Ranges of the Coast Mountains. The region is noted for its scenery and mild, rainy climate.
The City and Borough of Juneau, more commonly known simply as Juneau, is the capital city of the U.S. state of Alaska. Located in the Gastineau Channel and the Alaskan panhandle, it is a consolidated city-borough and the second-largest city in the United States by area. Juneau was named the capital of Alaska in 1906, when the government of what was then the District of Alaska was moved from Sitka as dictated by the U.S. Congress in 1900. The municipality unified on July 1, 1970; the city of Juneau merged with the city of Douglas and the surrounding Greater Juneau Borough to form the current municipality, which is larger by area than both Rhode Island and Delaware.
Angoon is a city on Admiralty Island in Hoonah-Angoon Census Area, Alaska, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 572; by the 2010 census the population had declined to 459. The name in Tlingit, Aangóon, means roughly "isthmus town."
Hoonah is a largely Tlingit community on Chichagof Island, located in Alaska's panhandle in the southeast region of the state. It is 30 miles (48 km) west of Juneau, across the Alaskan Inside Passage. Hoonah is the only first-class city on Chichagof Island, the 109th-largest island in the world and the 5th-largest island in the U.S. At the 2020 census the population was 931, up from 760 in 2010. In the summer the population can swell to over 1,300 depending on fishing, boating, hiking and hunting conditions.
Wrangell is a borough in Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was 2,127, down from 2,369 in 2010.
Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve is an American national park located in Southeast Alaska west of Juneau. President Calvin Coolidge proclaimed the area around Glacier Bay a national monument under the Antiquities Act on February 26, 1925. Subsequent to an expansion of the monument by President Jimmy Carter in 1978, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA) enlarged the national monument by 523,000 acres on December 2, 1980, and created Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The national preserve encompasses 58,406 acres of public land to the immediate northwest of the park, protecting a portion of the Alsek River with its fish and wildlife habitats, while allowing sport hunting.
The Kake War was the destruction in February, 1869, of three semi-permanent winter villages and two forts near present-day Kake, Alaska by the USS Saginaw. Prior to the conflict, two white trappers were killed by the Kake in retribution for the death of two Kake departing Sitka village by canoe. Sitka was the site of a standoff between the Army and Tlingit due to the army demanding the surrender of chief Colchika who was involved in an altercation in Fort Sitka.
Admiralty Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in Southeast Alaska, at 57°44′N134°20′W. It is 145 km (90 mi) long and 56 km (35 mi) wide with an area of 4,264.1 km2 (1,646.4 sq mi), making it the seventh-largest island in the United States and the 132nd largest island in the world. It is one of the ABC islands in Alaska. The island is nearly cut in two by the Seymour Canal; to its east is the long, narrow Glass Peninsula. Most of Admiralty Island—955,747 acres (3,868 km2)—is protected as the Admiralty Island National Monument administered by the Tongass National Forest. The Kootznoowoo Wilderness encompasses vast stands of old-growth temperate rainforest. These forests provide some of the best habitat available to species such as brown bears, bald eagles, and Sitka black-tailed deer.
Glacier Bay Basin in southeastern Alaska, in the United States, encompasses the Glacier Bay and surrounding mountains and glaciers, which was first proclaimed a U.S. National Monument on February 25, 1925, and which was later, on December 2, 1980, enlarged and designated as the Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, covering an area of 3,283,000 acres. In 1986, UNESCO declared an area of 57,000 acres within a World Biosphere Reserve. This is the largest UNESCO protected biosphere in the world. In 1992, UNESCO included this area as a part of a World Heritage site, extending over an area of 24,300,000-acre (98,000 km2) which also included the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, Kluane National Park (Canada) and Tatshenshini-Alsek Park (Canada). Part of the National Park is also designated a Wilderness area covering 2,658,000 acres.
The first USS Saginaw was a sidewheel sloop-of-war in the United States Navy during the American Civil War. The ship was in operation throughout the 1860s, but in 1870 wrecked on what is now known as Kure Atoll, a Pacific island. The event produced several books and one of the surviving boats from the ship is in a museum.
Holkham Bay is a bay in the U.S. state of Alaska. It connects Tracy Arm and Endicott Arm on its east to Stephens Passage on its west.
Snettisham is a locale and former populated place in the City and Borough of Juneau, Alaska, United States. Based on the mainland coast of Stephens Passage, it is 31 miles (50 km) southeast of the city of Juneau. The area was named by George Vancouver in 1794; the bay on which Snettisham was located was named for the village of Snettisham in Norfolk, England. It was established as a gold- and silver-mining camp around 1895, its operations being linked to those in the immediate Juneau area, and it remained a small harbor village until 1926. The United States Department of the Treasury designated Snettisham as one of several of Alaska's "special" landing places for vessels carrying "coal, salt, railroad iron, and other like items in bulk". The designation was meant to encourage the construction of facilities to accommodate these shipments, thus stimulating creation and growth of local businesses.
Sheep Creek is located 4 miles (6.4 km) southeast of Juneau, in the U.S. state of Alaska. The Juneau community of Thane was originally called Sheep Creek. Draining an area of about 5 square miles (13 km2), it empties into Gastineau Channel. The valley formed by the river has a flat, gravel, trekking trail of 3.5 miles (5.6 km), south of Mount Roberts. The Snettisham hydroelectric dam substation is situated on a trail spur. Sheep Creek Hatchery is located at the outflow.
Windham Bay is located 45 miles (72 km) southeast of Juneau, in the U.S. state of Alaska. Windham Bay is listed as site 6 within Southeast Alaska's Zone 3 of the Alaska Dept. of Environmental Conservation's Geographic Response Strategy oil spill response plan. Part of the bay is a protected wilderness area; the Chuck River Wilderness, established in 1990 by the United States Congress, covers an area of 74,506 acres (30,152 ha). The Chuck River flows into Windham Bay, which has a protected anchorage north of Port Houghton, where the historic Chuck Mining Camp once operated.
Kootznahoo Inlet is located on the eastern shore of Chatham Strait in the U.S. state of Alaska. Comprising an area of about 15 square miles (39 km2), it is an intricate group of narrow passages, lagoons, and bays, having its entrance 3 miles (4.8 km) north of Killisnoo. Kootznahoo, which means bear fortress, is also the name given by the Tlingit to mean Admiralty. The Kootznoowoo Wilderness also of the Admiralty Island covers some of the largest reserve areas covering about 1 million acres. The island is inhabited by about 1500 brown bears, the largest number recorded anywhere on the earth.
Port Snettisham is a narrow fjord 30 miles (48 km) southeast of Juneau in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is a semi protected deep water port that was developed to transport many mineral deposits found in the Snettisham Peninsula. Lieutenant Joseph Whidbey of the Royal Navy discovered the fjord on August 12, 1794; George Vancouver named it after the town of Snettisham in England.
Nugget Creek is fed by the Nugget Glacier, a tributary glacier on the mountainside east of Auke Bay in the borough of Juneau, Alaska, US. The creek feeds Nugget Falls. The valley of Nugget Creek joins that of Mendenhall River about 1.5 miles (2.4 km) above the foot of the glacier. Its basin, about 3 miles (4.8 km) in length, trends east and west, and there are several tributary gulches which head against the Lemon Creek divide. The rocks of the valley belong to the group of schists which lies next to the main diorite, except at the headwaters, where the edge of the intrusive rock appears.
Berners Bay is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska, approximately 40 miles (64 km) north of Juneau. It is a large and deep indentation, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) wide at the entrance, which is formed by Point Bridget and Point St. Marys. It runs in a north-northwest direction for 6 miles (9.7 km) from Point Bridget, with a width of 3 miles (4.8 km) opposite Point St. Marys. The bay is surrounded by Tongass National Forest.
The Juneau gold belt is located in the southeastern portion of the U.S. state of Alaska. This belt is approximately 100 miles (160 km) in length, north/northwest-trending, and extends from Berners Bay southeastward to Windham Bay, 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Juneau, and includes Douglas Island. The belt contains over 200 gold-quartz-vein deposits with production nearing 7,000,000 ounces (200,000,000 g) of gold. More than three-quarters of Alaska's lode gold was mined from the Juneau gold belt.
American Bay is a waterway in the U.S. state of Alaska. It is located on the east side of Dall Island, facing Long Island across Kaigani Strait.