Spruce Island (Alaska)

Spruce Island

Icon Bay
Spruce Island Location within Alaska
Geography
Location	North Pacific Ocean
Coordinates	57°55′05″N 152°24′35″W
Archipelago	Kodiak Archipelago
Area	17.786 sq mi (46.07 km2)
Highest elevation	1,339 ft (408.1 m)
Administration
United States
State	Alaska
Borough	Kodiak Island Borough
Demographics
Population	242 (2000)

Spruce Island (Russian: Еловый остров) is an island in the Kodiak Archipelago of the Gulf of Alaska in the US state of Alaska. It lies just off the northeast corner of Kodiak Island, across the Narrow Strait.

Size and demographics

Spruce Island has a land area of 46.066 km² (17.786 sq mi) and a population of 242, at the time of the 2000 census, whom reside mainly at the island's one settlement, Ouzinkie (in the southwestern part of the island).

History

Russian Orthodox monastery at Monk's Lagoon, Icon Bay, Spruce Island, Alaska.

From 1808 to 1818, Spruce Island was the hermitage of Herman of Alaska, later glorified as a saint and considered the patron saint of the Russian Orthodox Church, in the Americas. The island was referred to as New Valaam (Russian: Ново-Валаамский) by St. Herman, and is a site of pilgrimages by Orthodox Christians.

In 2008, a group of commentators and researchers—led by the mayor of the northern Siberian city of Yakutsk—argued that the island should, legally, still belong to the Russian Orthodox Church, as the Russian Empire had no authority to sell "religious property" as part of the Alaska Purchase.