Small Twin Otter transport planes from the Alaskan mainland can land on the sea ice here all year, weather permitting.

The island is part of Alaska, but closer to Siberia than to the Alaskan mainland.

In recent decades they have cruised the cold waters off the Aleutian Islands and the Alaskan mainland in robust numbers, like crowds of carefree vacationers.

They were well positioned to intercept something coming in to the Alaskan mainland, but not to go chasing things out over the Bering Sea.

And they are fast encroaching on other islands, including St. Paul, a stark and windswept island 300 miles west of the Alaskan mainland.

Supporting the possibility of an invasion of the Alaskan mainland were reports of a Japanese fleet operating in the Bering Sea.

No Japanese plan for invading the Alaskan mainland, Canada, or the United States existed.

In 1829 he journeyed to the Bering Sea coast of the Alaskan mainland and preached to the people there.

"in all probability a ship sunk between Kodiak Island and the Alaskan mainland," replied Sandecker.

The Aleutian Islands formed stepping-stones between Russian settlements in Siberia and the Alaskan mainland.