It's a Kodiak Moment Trivia Quiz

Answer: Shelikof Strait

The Shelikof Strait is named for the Russian fur trader and trapper Grigory Shelikof. He founded a settlement on Kodiak Island in the late 18th century.

Answer: True

Although the majority of the Borough consists of Kodiak Island and several other smaller islands, it also includes a thin strip of land along the nearest shore of the mainland.

Answer: James Cook

Although Captain Cook wasn't the first western explorer to visit the islands, he is the first known to use the Kodiak name. He mentioned it in his journal in 1778.

Answer: Cocos

Kodiak Island is one of the Kodiak-Bowie chain of seamounts - extinct volcanoes which formed over millions of years atop the Bowie Hotspot in the Earth's crust. As the tectonic plates moved over the years, the chain of seamounts was formed. Eventually, millions of years in the future, Kodiak Island will disappear as it is subsumed by the movement of the plates at the subduction zone between them.

Answer: A partially underground dwelling place

The Alutiiq people have lived on the islands for at least 7000 years. In spite of a small population, they maintain their culture and language, whilst integrating into the "incomer" population of the area.

A barabara, or ulax, is a house partly excavated out of the ground, with the roof area above ground. They were built to withstand the severe weather, and whalebone was often used for the framework which supported the turf roof.

Answer: Beaver

Whale Island, Marmot Island and the Geese Islands are all part of the Kodiak Archipelago. Whale Island is a little over fifteen square miles in area. Marmot Island is the most easterly island in the archipelago. The tiny Geese Islands are named for the Canada geese which nest there. All of them are uninhabited.
There are several Beaver Islands, one in Lake Michigan, one in Lake Superior, and one in the Falkland Islands.

Answer: Port Wakefield

Lowell Wakefield moved his business from Washington State to Alaska and founded Port Wakefield for the cannery and processing workers. During a major earthquake in 1964, the whole island suffered subsidence of up to six feet, and the town and cannery were badly damaged. The business relocated, and today the only people who live on Raspberry Island are workers in the tourist industry.

Answer: Off the south coast of Alaska, in the Pacific Ocean

If you visualise Alaska, with the long chain of islands trailing west from the Alaskan Peninsula in the south-western corner, Kodiak Island is "tucked under" the mainland, to the east of where the peninsula joins the mainland. It is in the extreme north of the Pacific Ocean, which can sound "odd" as most people think of the Pacific as being home to tropical islands, and hot countries.

The Pacific Ocean meets the Bering Sea just to the north of the Alaskan Peninsula and the long chain of the Aleutian Islands.

Answer: Sitka deer

The other two indigenous mammals of the Kodiak Archipelago are the red fox and the ermine (stoat). Sitka deer, along with snowshoe hares, elk, and beaver, were introduced by trappers and hunters in the first half of the twentieth century.

Answer: UFO Sightings

During the 2007 incident, an object that was at first thought to be a helicopter appeared over the Kenai Peninsula town of Chiniak. The object then travelled extremely fast towards Kodiak Island, 130 miles away, and was again observed overhead. With witnesses including the then Chief of Police, the reports of the object were taken seriously.

The object passed out of sight behind a high hill, and then witnesses reported "an explosion". Air and Sea Rescue units were alerted, and a search was made, but no debris or other sign was ever found. The description of the object, and its "lightshow" matched that made in 1950, but the first incident was not taken as seriously due to a lack of "reliable witnesses".