Akutan Island (Aleut: Akutanax̂) is an island in the Fox Islands group of the eastern Aleutian Islands in the U.S. state of Alaska. The island is approximately 18 mi (30 km) in length. It contains the Mount Akutan volcano, which had a major lava eruption in 1979. The land area is 129.01 sq mi (334.13 km²), and the island's population was 713 (2000 census), all in the city of Akutan, near the island's eastern end.
Akutan is an Aleut name reported by Capt. P. K. Krenitzin and M. Levashev in 1768 and spelled Acootan by James Cook in 1785. This name may be from the Aleut word "hakuta" which, according to R. H. Geoghegan, means "I made a mistake."
The Akutan Zero, a Japanese Zero aircraft, was named after the island after it crashed there during World War II and was recovered by the United States military.
Famous quotes containing the word island:
“We crossed a deep and wide bay which makes eastward north of Kineo, leaving an island on our left, and keeping to the eastern side of the lake. This way or that led to some Tomhegan or Socatarian stream, up which the Indian had hunted, and whither I longed to go. The last name, however, had a bogus sound, too much like sectarian for me, as if a missionary had tampered with it; but I knew that the Indians were very liberal. I think I should have inclined to the Tomhegan first.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)