Chamisso Island is a small island in Kotzebue Sound, Alaska. It is located off Spafarief Bay at the mouth of Eschscholtz Bay, just south of the Choris Peninsula.
The island is roughly triangular. It is 1.4 miles (2.3 km) long and an 0.125 miles (0.201 km) wide. The highest point on Chamisso Island is 226 feet (68.9 m) above sea level.
Chamisso Island has been a Natural Reserve since December 7, 1912. The protected area, the Chamisso Wilderness, includes Chamisso Island and nearby Puffin Island, as well as some rocky islets nearby. Both islands are part of the Chukchi Sea unit of the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge.
This island was named after naturalist Adelbert von Chamisso, who reached the island in 1816.
Famous quotes containing the words chamisso and/or island:
“There lived a sage in days of yore,
And he a handsome pigtail wore;
But wondered much, and sorrowed more,
Because it hung behind him.”
—Adelbert Von Chamisso (1781–1838)
“When the inhabitants of some sequestered island first descry the “big canoe” of the European rolling through the blue waters towards their shores, they rush down to the beach in crowds, and with open arms stand ready to embrace the strangers. Fatal embrace! They fold to their bosoms the vipers whose sting is destined to poison all their joys; and the instinctive feeling of love within their breasts is soon converted into the bitterest hate.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)