Middleton Island
Middleton Island is an island in the U.S. state of Alaska, located in the Pacific Ocean approximately southwest of Cordova. Most of the acreage on the island is owned by Chugach [Alaska Corporation], a for-profit corporation. The island is also home of the unattended Middleton Island Airport and NEXRAD weather radar, and the privately owned Middleton Island Marine Biological Station with researchers resident year-round.
A World War II-era American transport ship beached on the island in 1942 where the wreck is still intact. The island was briefly home to Middleton Island [Air Force Station], an early warning radar station, from 1958 until the station's closure in 1963. During the 1964 Alaska earthquake the island rose an additional above sea level expanding its acreage by about 45%.
Natural history
The island is thought to be only about 5,000 years old, having formed recently due to a continental shelf area that is subject to tectonic uplift. During the 1964 Alaska earthquake, the second largest earthquake ever recorded on earth, the island rose an additional above sea level, converting submerged seafloor into new land and estuary, in the process expanding the size of the island from approximately, or 45%. The new land continues to evolve through longshore deposition, sedimentation, and plant succession.According to the Institute for Seabird Research and Conservation:
The seabird population has risen and fallen dramatically. The explanations for this include changes in the landscape brought by the 1964 earthquake which reduced the sea-edge cliff habitat; changes in food availability caused by natural and man-made factors ; a significant increase in the bald eagle predator population.
The island has a feral population of rabbits since the 1950s. The rabbits provide food for eagles and owls during the winter, but the population rebounds in the summer. There are no other naturally occurring mammals on or near the island, other than seals, sea lions, the occasional sea otter, and several species of whales.
Cultural history
The island was historically used seasonally by Chugach and Eyak Indians. The earliest known permanent inhabitants were settlers in the fox-farming industry during the late 1890s through the 1920s. During World War II, the U.S. Coast Guard built a small communications station on the island, the first of successive U.S. Government operations to follow, including the Civil Aeronautics Administration, U.S. Air Force, Federal Aviation Administration, and various wildlife and land management agencies.Most of the acreage on the island is owned by Chugach Alaska Corporation, one of 13 Alaska Native regional corporations in the state. The Federal Aviation Administration retains some 200 hundred acres in support of radar installations for weather and air traffic monitoring. The privately owned biological station is the other substantial holding.