Description
Sanak Island is located largest of Sanak Is., 37 mi. SE of False Pass, Aleutian Range
History
Aleut name published by G. A. Sarichev (1826, map 3) as "Os(trov) Sannakh" or "Sannakh Island." The name "Halibut" was given to this island by Captain James Cook, Royal Navy (RN), (1785, v. 2, p. 416-17) because his crew caught more than 100 halibut weighing from 20 to 100 pounds each, off the coast in 1778. The island was called "Islas des Piles" meaning "island of fish" by Don Dionisoi A. Galiano (1802, Atlas Chart 3). The name was shortened to Sanak by the U.S. Post Office Department in 1919 when it established a post office at Sanak village.