History
Originally inhabited by Aleut natives for over 7000 years, Russian fur traders took control of the islands in the 18th century and nearly wiped out the now abundant sea otters that can often be seen floating together in the strait. Several fishing canneries existed on the island including Port Wakefield and Northwest Cannery in the early 20th century. These went out of business several decades later and a fox fur farm existed on the Northwest Cannery site for a while. Deposits of placer gold were noted at Raspberry Beach as early as 1915. However, the last recorded mining activity on the beach was in 1935. The half-mile long beach is located on the northwest coast of the island at Drivers Bay. Much of the island is owned by the First Native Corporation and is uninhabited except for the two wilderness lodges that exist on land previously owned by the canneries.
Read more about this topic: Raspberry Island (Alaska)
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Regarding History as the slaughter-bench at which the happiness of peoples, the wisdom of States, and the virtue of individuals have been victimized—the question involuntarily arises—to what principle, to what final aim these enormous sacrifices have been offered.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)
“The thing that struck me forcefully was the feeling of great age about the place. Standing on that old parade ground, which is now a cricket field, I could feel the dead generations crowding me. Here was the oldest settlement of freedmen in the Western world, no doubt. Men who had thrown off the bands of slavery by their own courage and ingenuity. The courage and daring of the Maroons strike like a purple beam across the history of Jamaica.”
—Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960)
“The history of mankind interests us only as it exhibits a steady gain of truth and right, in the incessant conflict which it records between the material and the moral nature.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)