(From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Unalaska Alaska is a small city in the Aleutians West Census Area of the Unorganized Borough of Alaska. According to 2005 Census Bureau estimates, the population of the city is 4,347.

Geography
Unalaska is located on Unalaska Island and neighboring Amaknak Island in the Aleutian Islands off of mainland Alaska.

Almost all of the community's port facilities are on Amaknak Island, better known as Dutch Harbor or just "Dutch". Dutch Harbor lies within the city limits of Unalaska and is connected to Unalaska by a bridge. Amaknak Island is home to almost 59 percent of the city's population, although it has less than 3 percent of its land area.

History
The Aleut or Unangan have lived on Unalaska Island for thousands of years. The Russian fur trade reached Unalaska when Stepan Glotov and his crew arrived on August 1, 1759. The name "Unalaska" is likely an Americanization of the Russian name "Ounalashka". The regional native corporation has adopted this moniker, and is known as the Ounalashka Corporation. Dutch Harbor was so named by the Russians because they believed that a Dutch vessel was the first European ship to enter the harbor.

Unalaska and Amaknak Islands contained 24 settlements with more than 1,000 Aleut inhabitants in 1759. In 1768, Unalaska became a Russian trading port for the fur seal industry, which was eventually monopolized by the Russian-American Company. It was there that Captain James Cook encountered the navigator Gerasim Izmailov in 1778.

In 1825, the Russian Orthodox Church of the Holy Ascension of Christ was built in Unalaska. The founding priest, Ivan Veniaminov, composed the first Aleut writing system with local assistance, and translated scripture into Aleut. By this time, (between 1830 and 1840), only 200 to 400 Aleuts lived in Unalaska.

In 1880, after the Alaska Purchase, the Methodist Church opened a school and a clinic for orphans in Unalaska. On June 3, 1942, during World War II, Unalaska was attacked by the Japanese. Almost all of the native residents of the island were sent to Southeast Alaska for the duration of the war.

Economy
The port of Unalaska/Dutch Harbor is the main port and field base for the storied Bering Sea crab fishery. The Dutch Harbor crabbing fleet is featured in the television show Deadliest Catch, a documentary style show on the Discovery Channel.

Dutch Harbor has also been the largest fisheries port in the United States, in terms of volume of seafood caught, for nearly every year since 1981. Until 2000, it also ranked first in terms of the dollar value of its catch; since 2000, however, the port of New Bedford, Massachusetts, has outranked Dutch Harbor in that category.