Reception for visiting relatives of island's namesake

The Friends of the Museum will be hosting a reception next Tuesday to celebrate Wrangell's eponym, in a sense, and welcome a group of his descendants.

The island is one of the namesakes of a prominent Russian explorer, the Baron Ferdinand von Wrangel, who in the early 19th century explored the Siberian Arctic and was appointed governor of the empire's holdings in Alaska in 1829. While an explorer, administrator and admiral for the Russian Empire, Wrangel was himself of German descent, part of the wider Baltic German community. He was born in 1797 in the city of Pskov, near the present-day Estonian border in Russia.

When Wrangel was commissioned by Tsar Alexander I to direct activities in Alaska, policy required the then-bachelor to marry before assuming his post. Returning to Estonia, he met and married his wife, Elizabeth, who accompanied him eastward via Siberia.

Under his administration, the first European fortification on Wrangell Island was established in 1834. It was named after the lieutenant charged with its construction, Polish explorer Dionysius Zarembo. Named Redoubt St. Dionysius, the strategically-placed fort served as a deterrent to incursions down the Stikine River by the Hudson Bay Company, British-backed rivals in the fur trade to the Russian-American Company.

During this period, the Tlingit Chief Shakes relocated his people from their village further south on the island nearer to the fort for commercial reasons. The settlement they founded would form the basis for the modern town of Wrangell.

Due primarily to logistical difficulties in supplying the fort, the Russians leased the fort and its fur interests to the Hudson Bay Company, with the British renaming it Fort Stikine. It would eventually be decommissioned in 1843.

Wrangel himself was recalled from the territory in 1834, soon after joining the admiralty in the Russian navy. He would serve as president of the Russian-American Company during the 1840s before reentering active service and participating in the Crimean War. He also served as Russia's naval minister, before retiring in 1864.

Wrangel was also a researcher, naturalist and cartographer, helping to found the Russian Geographical Society in 1845. A published author, he kept detailed accounts of his expeditions still available today.

A number of geographical features bear his name today, from the town and island of Wrangell in the Alexander Archipelago to Wrangel Island in the Arctic, the Wrangell Narrows, the Wrangell Mountains in Eastern Alaska, and a school in Roela, Estonia.

Following in their forebear's footsteps, 14 members of the Wrangel family will be stopping into Wrangell after visiting the family estate in Estonia. Tracing their shared roots back to 1207, the visiting members now live in Germany, Sweden and the Seattle area. Among their number will be journalist and author Cornelia von Wrangel, as well as family historians Joachim and Ingela Storhas.

At an informal meeting on Tuesday, the community is invited to meet them at the Nolan Center over refreshments. The Friends of the Museum have arranged the gathering, which is scheduled to run between 4 and 6 p.m. All are welcome to attend.