Wrangell-St. Elias: The History Behind the Name of America’s Largest National Park

Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangell. Photo courtesy of Alaska’s Digital Archives. 

By Andrew Carlson

Driving down the Richardson Highway, towards Valdez, there is a sign located at mile 107 that reads, “Wrangell-St. Elias National Park National Park & Preserve Visitor Center.” How did America’s largest national park get a name like “Wrangell St.-Elias?” When breaking down the two parts of the title “Wrangell” and then “St. Elias,” obscurities from Alaska’s Russian Period (1741-1867) emerge.                                                                                                     

The first part of the title “Wrangell” was named after the Baltic German Baron Ferdinand Petrovich von Wrangell. Wrangell properly pronounced sounds like “vron-gl” as a “w” makes the “v” sound in the German language. Wrangell was an arctic explorer who served as an administrator in Russian Alaska from 1829-1835 and later served as president of the Russian American Company from 1840-1849. Mt. Wrangell, the Wrangell mountain range, Wrangell Island, and the town of Wrangell are all named after him. Wrangell left Alaska and returned to Russia where he later became an admiral in the Russian Navy.                                                                (Note: References to Germans pertain to German regions, since Germany as a nation did not exist until 1871.)                                                                                                                             The second part of the title, “St. Elias” was devised by the Danish sea captain Vitus Bering. Bering was given his assignment by Russia’s then Emperor Peter the Great to make the first exploration of present day Alaska. During Bering’s 1741 expedition the first land Bering sighted was a large mountain from his ship. Viewing the mountain on the feast of St. Elias, Bering chose to name it in honor of St. Elias. 

Mount Wrangell viewed from across Willow Lake. Photo by Shanika Dunn.

Bering was also accompanied by a German scientist during this 1741 voyage by the name of Georg Wilhelm Steller. Steller would name the Steller’s jay, Steller’s eider, Steller’s sea cow and Steller sea lion, etc. during this expedition. Steller also helped save what remained of Bering’s crew during the return trip from Alaska to Russia, which saw their ship the St. Peter marooned on an uninhabited island (later named Bering island), located in an ocean that was later named the Bering Sea. Bering did not make it back to Russia, but two-thirds of Bering’s crew did, including Steller and a half dozen German officers.

One might wonder how Germans and a Dane influenced the name of America’s largest national park as well as influencing the names of animals and other topographic features in Alaska during a time known as the “Russian Period.” The answer is that Russia was vastly undereducated during the 18th and early 19th centuries. Peter the Great attempted to fix this problem by “modernizing” Russia through western educational reforms as well as instituting a beard tax. 

Steller’s first job, before joining the Bering voyage, was an adjunct professorial position at Russia’s St. Petersburg University, a result of Peter the Great’s earlier academic restructuring. Steller also did not have to pay the beard tax, since he did not have a beard. Regarding the German professorial staff at St. Petersburg University, Steller’s biographer, Corey Ford noted, “They had formed an inner clique, speaking only German among themselves and looked down on their Russian associates with smug superiority.”

Russia depended significantly on Europeans to fill its education gap. With some exceptions such as Bering, Russian historian Andre Grinev observed that a majority of professional positions during Alaska’s Russian Period (explorers, administrators, scientists, etc.) were occupied by Germans. This observation can be observed through examples such as Wrangell and Steller.                                  

You may also recognize the name of Baltic German explorer Otto von Kotzebue, who made an around the world voyage for Russia from 1815 to 1818.

Further Reading  

No author, “Who Were Wrangell and St. Elias?” National Park Service https://www.nps.gov/wrst/learn/historyculture/who-were-wrangell-and-elias.htm 

Andre Grinev translated by Richard Bland, “Germans in the history of Russian America,” Journal of the West 47:2 (Spring 2008), 32-43.

Corey Ford, Where the Sea Breaks Its Back: The Epic Story of Early Naturalist Georg Steller and the Russian Exploration of Alaska (Portland: Alaska Northwest Books, 1992), 30.

Carlson is the author of “The History of the Copper Center Agricultural Experiment Station, 1903-1908.”