Wrangell, Alaska

Wrangell (Tlingit: Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw, Russian: Врангель, romanized: Vrangel') is a borough in Alaska, United States. As of the 2020 census the population was around 2,127, down from 2,369 in 2010. Incorporated as a Unified Home Rule Borough on May 30, 2008, Wrangell was previously a city in the Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area, which was afterwards renamed the Petersburg Census Area (the Petersburg Borough was formed from part of this census area). Its Tlingit name is Ḵaachx̱ana.áakʼw ("Ḵaachx̱ans Little Lake" with áa-kʼw 'lake-diminutive'). The Tlingit people living in the Wrangell area, who were there centuries before Europeans, call themselves the Shtaxʼhéen Ḵwáan after the nearby Stikine River. Alternately they use the autonym Shxʼát Ḵwáan, where the meaning of shxʼát is unknown. They are enrolled in the Wrangell Cooperative Association, a federally recognized tribe. The central (urban) part of Wrangell is located at 56°28′15″N 132°22′36″W, in the northwest corner of Wrangell Island. The borough also encompasses the entire eastern half of the former Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area, in addition to the area around Meyers Chuck, which was formerly in the Prince of Wales-Outer Ketchikan Census Area. It includes Thoms Place, a former census-designated place on Wrangell Island.