Anangula Island facts for kids
Anangula Island is a small island in southwestern Alaska. It is part of the Fox Islands group, which belongs to the Aleutian Islands. The island is about 1.4 miles (2.2 km) long. It is separated from Umnak Island by a channel almost a mile (1.5 km) wide. Anangula Island has a mostly barren landscape. It is covered in volcanic ash.
Anangula's Ancient Past
During the last ice age, Anangula Island was very different. It was connected to Umnak Island. Together, they formed the tip of a peninsula. This land was on the southern edge of the Bering land bridge. A huge sheet of ice, called the Cordilleran Ice Sheet, covered this area. This made it impossible for animals or humans to live there.
The ice sheet began to melt about 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. This made the land suitable for life again. The first human settlement on Anangula Island was established about 8,400 years ago. This small village is the oldest known sign of human activity in the Aleutian Islands. It was located on the southeastern part of the island.
Scientists believe the village was lived in for a long time. However, it was eventually abandoned. A large eruption from the Okmok volcano caused this. The volcano is about 70 km (43 mi) away on Umnak Island. The eruption buried the village under nearly two meters of ash.
Anangula's Recent Story
In the 1910s, the United States government brought Arctic foxes to Anangula. This was done for trapping and fur trading. Many Aleut people from Nikolski, a village on Umnak Island, used to trap these foxes. Nikolski is about 4.3 miles (6.9 km) south of Anangula.
Later, in the 1930s, rabbits were also brought to the island. They were meant to be food for the foxes. However, by the late 1940s, the foxes were removed. They were harming the native marine bird populations. The rabbits, though, still live on the island today.
Anangula Island became important to archaeologists. In 1938, a scientist named William S. Laughlin discovered ancient tools there. These tools were made from stone. Later expeditions in the 1950s and 1960s found more artifacts. From 1970 to 1974, a series of four expeditions uncovered the ancient village site itself.
