The
City and Borough of Wrangell (
Tlingit:
Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw) is a
borough in the
U.S. state of
Alaska. As of the
2010 census the population was 2,369. Incorporated as a
Unified Home Rule Borough on May 30, 2008, Wrangell was previously a city in the Wrangell-Petersburg Census Area (afterwards renamed the
Petersburg Census Area (the
Petersburg Borough was formed from part of this census area)). Its
Tlingit name is
Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw (“
Ḵaachx̱an’s Little Lake” with
áa-kʼw ‘lake-diminutive’). The Tlingit people residing in the Wrangell area, who were there centuries before Europeans, call themselves the
Shtaxʼhéen Ḵwáan after the nearby
Stikine River. Alternately they use the
autonym Shxʼát Ḵwáan, where the meaning of
shxʼát is unknown.