Baranof Island, also sometimes called Baranov Island or Sitka Island, is an island in the Alexander Archipelago in the Alaska Panhandle, in Alaska. It was called "Shee" by the Tlingit. A MODIS photograph of the Alexander Archipelago The Alexander Archipelago is an archipelago, or group of islands, off the southeast coast of Alaska. ... The Alaska Panhandle is the coast of the American state of Alaska, just west of the Canada. ... State nickname: The Last Frontier, The Land of the Midnight Sun Other U.S. States Capital Juneau Largest city Anchorage Governor Frank Murkowski (R) Official languages English Area 1,717,854 km² (1st)  - Land 1,481,347 km²  - Water 236,507 km² (13. ... A Tlingit totem pole in Ketchikan ca. ...

The island is 4,162 sq. km (1,607 sq. miles) in size. The island is about 160 km (100 miles) long and 48 km (30 miles) wide or about the size of the state of Delaware. Its center is near 57°0′ N 135°0′ W. The island's largest town is Sitka. The towns of Baranof Warm Springs, Port Alexander, Port Armstrong, and Port Walter are also located on the eastern side of the island. Goddard, a now-abandoned settlement about 50 miles south of Sitka features a few seasonal homes and hot springs with two bathhouses. The City of Sitka recently finished construction of a recreational cabin in Goddard that can be rented to the general public. There is also a year-round salmon hatchery located just north of Baranof Warm Springs at Hidden Falls. All of these communities are under the jurisdiction of the City and Borough of Sitka, of which, Sitka serves as the borough seat. State nickname: The First State Other U.S. States Capital Dover Largest city Wilmington Governor Ruth Ann Minner Official languages None Area 6,452 km² (49th)  - Land 5,068 km²  - Water 1,387 km² (21. ... Sitka City and Borough is a borough located on the west side of Baranof Island in the Alexander Archipelago of the Pacific Ocean, in the state of Alaska. ... The Chinook or King Salmon is the largest salmon in North America and can grow up to 58 long and 126 pounds. ... A hatchery is a man-made farm for fish, used to cultivate and breed a large number of fish in a enclosed environment regulary as opposed to going out and finding the fish naturally. ...

Fishing, seafood processing, and tourism are important industries on the island.

Baranof Island is famous for brown bears and Sitka deer. Binomial name Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758 The Brown Bear (Ursus arctos) is a species of bear that can reach weights of 130–700 kg (300–1500 pounds). ... The Sitka deer , Odocoileus hemionus subspecies sitkensis, is a subspecies of Black-tailed Deer that inhabits northern British Columbia, Canada and southeastern Alaska, United States. ...

The first European settlement on island was established in 1741 by Russians. Baranof Island was the center of Russian activity in North America during the period from 1804–1867 and was the headquarters of the Russian fur-trading interest, the Russian-American Company. // Events April 10 – Austrian army attack troops of Frederick the Great at Mollwitz December 19 – Vitus Bering dies in his expedition east of Siberia December 25 – Anders Celsius develops his own thermometer scale Celsius William Browning invents mineral water Elizabeth of Russia became czarina. ... The Russian-American Company was a semi-official colonial trading company started by Grigory Shelikhov and Nikolai Rezanov and chartered by tsar Paul I in 1799. ...

Around 1900, Baranof Island was subject to many small-scale mining ventures, especially centered around Sitka and on the north side of the island around Rodman Bay. Now-abondoned canneries, whaling stations, and fox farms popped up on all sides of the island but most had been abondoned by the outbreak of World War Two. These outposts' remains are still very prevelent albeit rather dangerous to explore. The El Chino Mine located near Silver City, New Mexico is an open-pit copper mine Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the earth, usually (but not always) from an ore body, vein, or (coal) seam. ... German soldiers at the Battle of Stalingrad World War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the worlds nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. ...

Both the island and the archipelago received their names from Alexandr Baranov, the first governor of the Russian-American Company. Alexandr Andreevich Baranov (Александр Андреевич Баранов in Russian), sometimes spelled Aleksander or Alexander and Baranof, was born in 1746 in Kargopol, in the Arkhangelsk province of Russia. ... The Russian-American Company was a semi-official colonial trading company started by Grigory Shelikhov and Nikolai Rezanov and chartered by tsar Paul I in 1799. ...