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:
“I candidly confess that I have ever looked on Cuba as the most interesting addition which could ever be made to our system of States. The control which, with Florida, this island would give us over the Gulf of Mexico, and the countries and isthmus bordering on it, as well as all those whose waters flow into it, would fill up the measure of our political well-being.”
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826)