Misty Fjords National Monument

Misty Fjords National Monument
One of the thousands of ocean inlets at Misty Fiords.
Map showing the location of Misty Fjords National Monument
Map showing the location of Misty Fjords National Monument
Location of Misty Fjords in the United States
LocationKetchikan Gateway Borough, Alaska, United States
Nearest cityKetchikan, AK
Coordinates55°37′18″N 130°36′26″W / 55.62167°N 130.60722°W / 55.62167; -130.60722
Area2,294,343 acres (9,246 km2)
EstablishedDecember 1, 1978
Governing bodyU.S. Forest Service

Misty Fjords National Monument (or Misty Fiords National Monument) is a national monument and wilderness area administered by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the Tongass National Forest. Misty Fiords is about 40 miles (64 km) east of Ketchikan, Alaska, along the Inside Passage coast in extreme southeastern Alaska, comprising 2,294,343 acres (928,488 ha) of Tongass National Forest in Alaska's Panhandle. All but 151,832 acres (61,444 ha) are designated as wilderness.

Congress reserved the remainder for the Quartz Hill molybdenum deposit, possibly the largest such mineral deposit in the world. The national monument was originally proclaimed by President Jimmy Carter in December 1978 as Misty Fiords National Monument,[1] using the authorization of the Antiquities Act and became a part of an ongoing political struggle between the federal government and the State of Alaska over land use policy and authority that finally led to the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act in 1980.[2] In that law, it was statutorily established as Misty Fjords National Monument.[3]