History
American explorer and US Navy Lieutenant Commander George Washington DeLong set out in 1879 aboard the Jeannette, hoping to reach Wrangel Island and to discover open seas in the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole. However, the ship entered an ice pack near Herald Island in September 1879 and became trapped. The vessel drifted several hundred miles with the ice, passing north of Wrangel Island. In May 1881 it approached Jeannette Island and Henrietta Island. According to The Annual Report of the Secretary of the Navy, for the Year 1882 (pg.16), "A sled party landed, hoisted the national ensign, and took possession in the name of the United States. The excursion, led by George W. Melville, landed on June 2 or 3, constructed a cairn, and placed inside it a record of their visit.
During the 1914-15 Imperial Russian Arctic Ocean Hydrographic Expedition led by Boris Vilkitsky, the Vaygach approached Jeannette Island with the intention of mapping Jeannette and Henrietta Islands, but heavy ice blocked the approach. In 1916 the Russian ambassador in London issued an official notice to the effect that the Imperial government considered Henrietta, along with other Arctic islands, integral parts of the Russian Empire. This territorial claim was later maintained by the Soviet Union.
A Soviet polar station was established on Henrietta Island in 1937, and closed in 1963. Henrietta Island served in 1979 as the starting point for a Soviet expedition to the North Pole on skis
Some U.S. individuals assert American ownership of Henrietta Island based on the 1881 discovery and claim. A resolution of the Alaska State Senate in 1988 supported this claim. There also are various documents from the former Department of the Navy stating that the United States asserts sovereignty over the island. However, according to the U.S. Department of State in 2003, the U.S. government has never claimed Henrietta Island. In 1994, the Alaska State Supreme Court ruled in D. Denardo v. State of Alaska that Henrietta Island, along with several islands, is not part of Alaska. But this ruling did not preclude that the island is a possession of the United States, for example as an unincorporated territory.
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