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Attu Island, Alaska
Oct. 19th, 2010 03:01 pmContinuing in my series of posting about new places I learn about...
I learned a new bit of geography and crosswordese this afternoon. The NY Times crossword clue was "Westernmost Aleutian." I knew the Aleutian Islands fan out to the West from the southern coast of Alaska, but I didn't know the names of any of them. The island furthest out, and therefore the westernmost piece of American territory, is called Attu.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attu_Island
They have their own homepage
http://www.hlswilliwaw.com/aleutians/attu-homepage.htm
Here's a satellite view of Attu Station where 20 people used to hang out. You can clearly see the two landing strips and the buildings and roads near the coast.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Attu+Island,+AK&sll=42.372716,-71.08564&sspn=0.010589,0.014505&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Attu+Island,+Aleutians+West,+Alaska&t=h&ll=52.831966,173.168821&spn=0.034639,0.058022&z=14
There was a big bloody WWII battle there against the Japanese. That got it onto the National Register of Historic Places.
There's a peace memorial built by the Japanese.
They're a great place to see an interesting variety of Asian birds.
The weather is awful - there are only 8-10 clear days a year. The rest of the time it is raining and/or foggy.
There was a LORAN station there until two months ago. "On Aug. 1, 2010, the United States Coast Guard loran station on Attu permanently ceased operation. On Aug. 27 the station was decommissioned and the Coast Guard personnel left, leaving the island with no resident population."
I learned a new bit of geography and crosswordese this afternoon. The NY Times crossword clue was "Westernmost Aleutian." I knew the Aleutian Islands fan out to the West from the southern coast of Alaska, but I didn't know the names of any of them. The island furthest out, and therefore the westernmost piece of American territory, is called Attu.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attu_Island
They have their own homepage
http://www.hlswilliwaw.com/aleutians/attu-homepage.htm
Here's a satellite view of Attu Station where 20 people used to hang out. You can clearly see the two landing strips and the buildings and roads near the coast.
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=Attu+Island,+AK&sll=42.372716,-71.08564&sspn=0.010589,0.014505&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Attu+Island,+Aleutians+West,+Alaska&t=h&ll=52.831966,173.168821&spn=0.034639,0.058022&z=14
There was a big bloody WWII battle there against the Japanese. That got it onto the National Register of Historic Places.
There's a peace memorial built by the Japanese.
They're a great place to see an interesting variety of Asian birds.
The weather is awful - there are only 8-10 clear days a year. The rest of the time it is raining and/or foggy.
There was a LORAN station there until two months ago. "On Aug. 1, 2010, the United States Coast Guard loran station on Attu permanently ceased operation. On Aug. 27 the station was decommissioned and the Coast Guard personnel left, leaving the island with no resident population."
