Coronation Island (Alaska)


Coronation Island is located in Alaska off the northwest coast of Prince of Wales Island, south of Kuiu Island, and north of Noyes Island. The nearest full-service community is Craig, Alaska. The island is also home to the Coronation Island Wilderness, which encompasses.
Coronation Island was sighted and named by George Vancouver on 22 September 1793, that day being the 33rd anniversary of the coronation of King George III.

Island access

The island is accessible by boat or floatplane. People wanting to visit should be aware of winds and surf.

Geography

Coronation Island has the Pacific Ocean to its south and southwest, Iphigenia Bay to its southeast, Sumner Strait to its east and northeast, and Chatham Strait to its west and northwest. To the north is Kuiu Island. To the east is Warren Island. Coronation Island has seven high peaks: Needle Peak, Aats Peak, Pin Peak, and four other peaks that are not named. Coronation Island has five bays: Egg Harbor, Alikula Bay, Aats Bay, Gish Bay, and Windy Bay. The island is surrounded by rocky areas, a few sandy areas, and a handful of coral reefs. The island is made largely of limestone. Colander Cave was found in 2001.

Wildlife

Common animals on Coronation Island include American black bears, black-tailed deer, bald eagles, and wolves. The ocean around the island ranges from to and supports a handful of coral reef areas as well as sea otters, Steller's sea lions, harbor seals, and humpback whales. Fish and shellfish that inhabit the water around the island include king salmon, red salmon, silver salmon, pink salmon, chum salmon, halibut, lingcod, Pacific cod, a variety of rockfish, greenling, ratfish, dog sharks, dungeness crab, tanner crab, king crab, shrimp, prawns, scallops, abalone, clams, and jellyfish. Great white sharks that have traveled up on warm currents have been reported off the island.

Flora

The island has Sitka spruce and western hemlock. The rest of the island vegetation is lush and varied.

Culture

The Henyakwan Tlingit traditionally used Coronation Island, and would often camp at Egg Harbor while awaiting fair weather to travel out to the Hazy Islands, where they would gather bird eggs. A lead mine operated on the west shore of Egg Harbor from the early 1900s until the late 1960s.

General wilderness prohibitions

Motorized equipment and equipment used for mechanical transport is generally prohibited on all United States Government lands designated as wilderness. This includes the use of motor vehicles, motorboats, motorized equipment, bicycles, hang gliders, wagons, carts, portage wheels, and the landing of aircraft including helicopters, unless provided for in specific legislation.
In a few areas some exceptions allowing the use of motorized equipment or mechanical transport are described in the special regulations in effect for a specific area. Contact the United States Forest Service office for more specific information.
These general prohibitions have been implemented for all national forest wildernesses in order to implement the provisions of the Wilderness Act of 1964. The Wilderness Act requires management of human-caused impacts and protection of the area's wilderness character to ensure that it is "unimpaired for the future use and enjoyment as wilderness." Use of the equipment listed as prohibited in wilderness is inconsistent with the provision in the Wilderness Act which mandates opportunities for solitude or primitive recreation and that wilderness is a place that is in contrast with areas where people and their works are dominant.