The City of Unalaska (Aleut: Iluulux̂;[4] Russian: Уналашка) is the main population center in the Aleutian Islands.

The city is in the Aleutians West Census Area, a regional component of the Unorganized Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska.

[7] The Russian fur trade reached Unalaska when Stepan Glotov and his crew arrived on August 1, 1759.

Natives, Russians and their Alaskan Creole descendants comprised most of the community's population until the mid-20th century, when the involvement of the United States in World War II led to a large-scale influx of people and construction of buildings all along the strategically located Aleutians.

It includes Dutch Harbor Naval Operating Base and Fort Mears, U.S. Army, a U.S. National Historic Landmark.

As a result of the town's strong fishing industry, Unalaska has also become notable for its large population of bald eagles, which number in the hundreds and were attracted to the area by human activity.

An expedition by Esteban José Martínez and Gonzalo López de Haro visited several Russian settlements.

On August 5, 1788, they claimed Unalaska for Spain, calling it Puerto de Dona Marie Luisa Teresa.

Between 1836 and 1840, measles, chicken-pox and whooping-cough epidemics drastically reduced the population; thus, at the end of the decade, only 200 to 400 Aleuts lived in Unalaska.

Between 1899 and 1905, the Gold Rush brought many ships through Dutch Harbor, where the North American Commercial Company had a coaling station.

Construction finished entirely by September 1941, three months before the surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that caused the U.S. to enter the war.

On June 3, 1942, the town was attacked by Japanese air forces in the Battle of Dutch Harbor, part of the Aleutian Islands Campaign.

After the attack and the Japanese occupations of Kiska and Attu, almost all of the native residents of Amaknak Island were evacuated.

Many were held under poor conditions in camps in Southeast Alaska for the duration of the war; a substantial number of the internees died during the imprisonment.

[16] Since 2005, the Discovery Channel's documentary show Deadliest Catch has focused on fishermen who are based in Dutch Harbor.

By climbing one of the smaller hills in the area, such as Pyramid Peak or Mount Newhall, it is possible to get a good look at the snow-covered cone.

A major find was announced in 2015 after scientists examined a group of giant, tusked, quadruped, marine mammal fossils.

They are unique, shore dwellers belonging to the extinct order Desmostylia, and possibly related to Proboscidea or Sirenia.

Precipitation is especially heavy from October to February, when frequent, often-intense storms from the North Pacific Ocean cross the area, bringing high to very high winds and heavy precipitation in any form, and sometimes, changing forms (rain, freezing rain, sleet, snow).

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.

[33][34] 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.

It is rarely economical to ship the fish oil elsewhere and Alaskan communities are heavily dependent on diesel power generation.

Unalaska was home to Carl Moses, who moved there from King Cove in the mid-1960s and was a business and political leader in the community for decades until shortly before his death in 2014.

The only other Unalaska resident to serve in the legislature was Eric G. Sutcliffe, at the time owner of Stormy's Restaurant.

As Unalaska is designated a first-class city and located within the Unorganized Borough, it is required under state law to operate its own schools rather than participate in a Rural Education Attendance Area.

UCSD was voted one of the best 100 school districts in the United States by Offspring Magazine, a Forbes publication.

[40] It offers university classes, community workshops, local courses, as well as dual credit for high school students.