Zarembo Island facts for kids

Zarembo Island is a beautiful island located in the Alexander Archipelago in southeastern Alaska, United States. It is surrounded by other islands like Mitkof Island to the north, Etolin Island to the southeast, Kupreanof Island to the northwest, and Prince of Wales Island to the southwest.

Zarembo Island is quite large, covering about 183.14 square miles (474.33 square kilometers). This makes it the 34th largest island in the United States! Even though it's big, no one lives on Zarembo Island permanently. It is a wild and natural place.

Discovering Zarembo Island

The island was first mapped in 1793 by a man named James Johnstone. He was an officer working with George Vancouver on a big trip to explore the area between 1791 and 1795. When Johnstone first mapped the island, he only explored its north, west, and south sides. He didn't realize at the time that it was a complete island!

How Zarembo Island Got Its Name

Zarembo Island is named after Dionysius Zarembo. He was a Polish explorer who worked for the Russian-American Company. This company was very important in Alaska's early history.

Dionysius Zarembo was a captain of a ship called the Chichagof. He helped set up a fort called Redoubt San Dionisio near what is now Wrangell. This fort was built to protect the area from other trading companies, like the Hudson's Bay Company, that wanted to move into the Stikine region. The island was named in his honor.

Zarembo Mineral Water

For a short time, Zarembo Island was known for its special mineral water. From the late 1890s to the early 1910s, a company in Seattle, Washington, bottled water from mineral springs on the island.

This Zarembo mineral water was quite famous! It even won a gold medal at the 1904 Lewis & Clark Centennial Exposition. It also had a big display at the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition, showing how popular it was.