The total population of the island was 3,364 at the 2000 census, almost all of it in the city of Petersburg.

Bordered by Mitkof Island on one side, and Kuprenof and Woewodski Islands on the other, the Wrangell Narrows creates the only navigable 'Inside Passage' at this latitude and is one of the six Listed Narrows of Southeast Alaska.

Because of their shallow depths, the largest cruise ships do not pass through Wrangell Narrows or through Dry Strait.

[1] The first European to sight the island was James Johnstone, one of George Vancouver's officers during his 1791-95 expedition, in 1793.

[2] The island is shown as separate from Kupreanof Island in an 1844 Russian chart, while the name was published in 1848 on a Russian Hydrographic Department chart as "Os(trov) Mitkova" for an Admiral Prokofy Mitkov.