Becharof Lake
| Becharof Lake | |
|---|---|
 from space | |
| Location | Lake and Peninsula Borough, Alaska |
| Coordinates | 57°57′08″N 156°22′36″W / 57.95222°N 156.37667°WCoordinates: 57°57′08″N 156°22′36″W / 57.95222°N 156.37667°W[1] |
| Basin countries | United States |
| Max. length | 37 mi (60 km)[1] |
| Surface area | 453 sq mi (1,170 km2)[2] |
| Surface elevation | 13 ft (4.0 m)[1] |
| References | [1][2] |
Becharof Lake is a 37-mile (60 km) long lake on the Alaska Peninsula. It is located 23 miles (37 km) south-east of Egegik, in the Aleutian Range.
Becharof Lake is the second largest lake in Alaska after Iliamna Lake. It ranks eighth on list of largest lakes of the United States by volume and fourteenth on list of largest lakes of the United States by area.[2]
History
Russian navigator Dmitry Bocharov, Imperial Russian Navy, explored at Kodiak, Alaska, in 1788. He returned to Alaska in 1791. In late spring 1791, Alexander Andreyevich Baranov, chief manager of the Shelikhov-Golikov Company in Russian America, ordered Bocharov to explore the northwest shore of the Alaska Peninsula. His orders directed him to seek a portage across the peninsula near Kodiak. Twenty to thirty men crewed two 30 feet (9.1 m)-long walrus-skin-covered open boats under his command.
They sailed and paddled from Unalaska Island along the northwest shore of the Alaska Peninsula as far as Bristol Bay via Egegik Bay. In search of a portage, he traveled up Egegik River into a large inland lake. This lake now bears his name with an Americanized spelling: Becharof Lake. He probed the lake to its most eastern extent in the summer of 1791. After making a portage from the easternmost point of the lake to the North Pacific Ocean, he returned to Kodiak and reported his findings to Baranov.[3][4]
The Russian Hydrological Department published the name "Oz(ero) Ugashek" on Chart 1455 in 1852.[1]
Alaska Purchase of 1867 transferred the territory from Russian Empire to United States of America. Naturalist William Healey Dall of Smithsonian Institution, later Acting Assistant to United States Coast Survey, named the lake in 1868.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 U.S. Geological Survey Geographic Names Information System: Becharof Lake
- 1 2 3 "Profile of the People and Land of the United States". US Department of Interior, National Atlas of the United States.
- ↑ Russians in Alaska, by Lydia T. Black, University of Alaska Press 2004, page 113.
- ↑ Lord of Alaska - The Story of Baranov and the Russian Adventure by Hector Chevigny, Binfords & Mort, Portland OR, 1942, page 46.