Attu Island

Attu (Aleut: Atan, Russian: Атту) is an island in the Near Islands (part of the Aleutian Islands chain). It is one of the westernmost points of the U.S. state of Alaska. The island became uninhabited in 2010, making it the largest uninhabited island that is part of the United States. In the chain of the Aleutians, the islands immediately to the west of Attu are the Russian Commander Islands, 208 miles (181 nmi; 335 km) away (and on the other side of the International Date Line). Attu is nearly 1,100 miles (960 nmi; 1,800 km) from the Alaskan mainland and 750 miles (650 nmi; 1,210 km) northeast of the northernmost of the Kuril Islands of Russia, as well as being 1,500 miles (1,300 nmi; 2,400 km) from Anchorage, 2,000 miles (1,700 nmi; 3,200 km) from Alaska's capital of Juneau, and 4,845 miles (4,210 nmi; 7,797 km) from New York City. Attu is about 20 by 35 miles (32 by 56 km) in size with a land area of 344.7 square miles (893 km2), making it the 23rd largest island in the United States. Attu Station, a former Coast Guard LORAN station, is located at 52°51′N 173°11′E, making it one of the westernmost points of the United States relative to the rest of the country. (Technically it is in the Eastern Hemisphere, being on the opposite side of the 180° longitude line from the contiguous 48 states, and thus can also be considered one of the easternmost points of the country; a second Aleutian Island, Semisopochnoi Island at 179°46′E, is the easternmost location in the United States by this definition. For purposes of calendar date, the International Date Line, however, passes to the west of Attu Island, making it the westernmost place in the United States with the same date.) Although Attu Island is the westernmost body of land east of the International Date Line, its time zone is the same as other western Aleutian Islands, UTC−10, which means that locations to the south-southeast (such as the uninhabited Baker Island and Howland Island in UTC−12 and Niue, Midway Atoll and American Samoa in UTC −11) have earlier clocks. The population in the 2010 census was 20 people, all at the Attu Station, though all inhabitants left the island later that year when the station closed. It then became the largest uninhabited island in the United States. The Battle of Attu was the only World War II land battle fought in territory that is now part of a U.S. state. The battlefield site is a U.S. National Historic Landmark. In 1982, the only significant trees on the island were those planted by American soldiers at a chapel constructed after the 1943 battle when the Japanese occupation was over; they have since gone.

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