Southwestern Alaska is also known as the Aleutian Island chain. There are more than 200 islands in this chain of islands. These islands stretch more than 1,400 miles into the ocean. On these islands you'll find more than 50 volcanoes. That means that you'll find a volcano on every fourth island. These islands separate the Bering Sea from the North Pacific Ocean. The Bering Sea is on the northern side of the Aleutians. The North Pacific is on the southern side of the Aleutians. You will also find the Katmai National Park and Preserve. There are about five major island groups. Almost all of these islands are treeless. A few years ago someone did bring in seeds and there are a few trees on some islands.

Photo Copyright ©, Bill Hutchinson, The Kenai Peninsula Eagle PresS™ used here with permission.

The area has a lot of mountains and only on the Bering Sea side of the islands does the terrain flatten out.

On these islands there are a lot of animals and birds. There are a total of 22 kinds of sea mammals and over 230 kinds of birds.

In this area of the state you can find Aleut Native people. Aleut is pronounced (Al-ee-oot). Aleuts use to live in houses called barabaras. This was a house for one family that was partly underground and partly above ground. The roof was covered with sod. Most of the time the entrance was through the roof.

The Aleutian climate is cool in the summer with temperatures around 50šF. In the winter the temperature is in the 20's and lower. The wind blows almost all the time. Most of the time in this region you also see a lot of fog. Each year the region gets a lot of rain and snow, but mostly freezing rain.

There were a lot animals in this region with valuable fur. The Russians came here about 1700. They were very greedy about the valuable fur. They forced the Aleut people to do what they told them to do. Most of the time they forced them to hunt animals with fur. After the United States purchased Alaska, foxes were farmed in this region. These foxes did a lot of damage to the native wildlife.