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WRANGELL, ALASKA - USA
Wrangell is a city located in Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area, Alaska. As of
the 2000 census, the population of the city is 2,308.
Geography
Wrangell is located at 56°27'23" North, 132°22'40" West (56.456383,
-132.377755)1.
Wrangell is located on the northern tip of Wrangell Island, an island in the
Alaska Panhandle. It is 250 km (155 miles) south of the Alaskan capital of
Juneau. It is across the narrow Zimovia Strait from the mouth of the Stikine
River on the Alaska mainland. The town is named after the island, which was
named after Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, a Russian explorer and the
administrator of the Russian-American Company from 1840 to 1849.
According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of
183.5 km˛ (70.8 mi˛). 117.3 km˛ (45.3 mi˛) of it is land and 66.2 km˛ (25.6
mi˛) of it is water. The total area is 36.10% water.
Demographics
As of the census2 of 2000, there are 2,308 people, 907 households, and 623
families residing in the city. The population density is 19.7/km˛ (51.0/mi˛).
There are 1,092 housing units at an average density of 9.3/km˛ (24.1/mi˛).
The racial makeup of the city is 73.48% White, 0.13% Black or African
American, 15.51% Native American, 0.65% Asian, 0.13% Pacific Islander, 0.35%
from other races, and 9.75% from two or more races. 1.00% of the population
are Hispanic or Latino of any race.
There are 907 households out of which 35.7% have children under the age of
18 living with them, 54.9% are married couples living together, 9.4% have a
female householder with no husband present, and 31.3% are non-families.
26.5% of all households are made up of individuals and 9.6% have someone
living alone who is 65 years of age or older. The average household size is
2.52 and the average family size is 3.05.
In the city the population is spread out with 29.4% under the age of 18,
5.2% from 18 to 24, 27.3% from 25 to 44, 26.4% from 45 to 64, and 11.7% who
are 65 years of age or older. The median age is 39 years. For every 100
females there are 106.1 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there
are 102.7 males.
The median income for a household in the city is $43,250, and the median
income for a family is $54,167. Males have a median income of $43,846 versus
$29,205 for females. The per capita income for the city is $21,851. 9.0% of
the population and 7.3% of families are below the poverty line. Out of the
total people living in poverty, 11.0% are under the age of 18 and 9.3% are
65 or older.
History
Wrangell is one of the oldest non-Native settlements in Alaska. In 1811, the
Russians began fur trading with area Tlingit at the site of present-day
Wrangell. In 1834, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, then head of Russian
government interests in Russian America, ordered a stockade built near a
Tlingit clan-house that was located 20 km (13 miles) north of the large
Tlingit village of Kotzlitzna. The stockade, named Redoubt Saint Dionysius,
and was at the location of present-day Wrangell. The British Hudson's Bay
Company leased the fort in 1840 and named the stockade Fort Stikine.
The Tlingits had used the Stikine River as a trade route to in interior
since ancient times and they protested when the Hudson Bay Company began to
use their trade routes. However, two epidemics of smallpox, in 1836 and
1840, reduced the Tlingit population in the area by half and silenced most
of the protest.
The fort was abandoned in 1849 after the fur-bearing animals were depleted.
It remained under British rule until Alaska's purchase by the United States
in 1867.
In 1868, a U. S. military post called Fort Wrangell was built at the site.
The community around the post continued to grow through commerce with gold
prospectors in the gold rushes of 1861, 1874 - 1877 and 1897. As in Skagway,
many gambling halls, dance halls and bars were built. Thousands of miners
traveled up the Stikine River into the Cassiar District of British Columbia
during 1874, and again to the Klondike in 1897.
Currently, logging, fishing and tourism are the mainstays of the Wrangell
area economy.
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