Yakutat, Alaska
consolidated city-borough in Alaska, United States
The City and Borough of Yakutat (, YAK-ə-tat; Tlingit: Yaakwdáat) is a borough in the state of Alaska. Yakutat was also the name of a former city within the borough. The name in Tlingit is Yaakwdáat (meaning "the place where canoes rest"). It is derived from an Eyak name, diyaʼqudaʼt, and was influenced by the Tlingit word yaakw ("canoe, boat").
The borough covers an area about six times the size of the state of Rhode Island, making it one of the nation's largest counties or county equivalents. As of the 2020 census the population was 657. As of 2010, it was Alaska's least populous borough or census area, and the ninth-least populous county nationwide. The population declined from 808 in 2000.
The Borough of Yakutat was incorporated as a non-unified Home Rule Borough on September 22, 1992. Yakutat was previously a city in the Skagway–Yakutat–Angoon Census Area (later renamed the Skagway–Hoonah–Angoon Census Area).
“Yakutat, Alaska” enters the record as consolidated city-borough in Alaska, United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Yakutat, Alaska and consolidated can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Yakutat, Alaska” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Yakutat, Alaska and consolidated provides the most credible route into that argument.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 5, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q487681. VIAF identifies the subject as 154562932. The Library of Congress control number is n82020777. Authority coordinates are 59.547, -139.727. 4 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2020, 2010, 2000 and 1992.
Modern boundaries and familiar names can conceal earlier jurisdictions or structures that do not align with the present site. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Yakutat, Alaska”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Yakutat, Alaska primary sources, Yakutat, Alaska archive and Yakutat research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Yakutat, Alaska”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- Which earlier names or jurisdictions may reveal additional records?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Yakutat, Alaska” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.