Isla de los Estados
Puerto Cook, north coast
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 Isla de los Estados
Staten Island |
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| Geography | |
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| Location | Atlantic Ocean |
| Coordinates | 54°47′S 64°15′W / 54.783°S 64.250°WCoordinates: 54°47′S 64°15′W / 54.783°S 64.250°W |
| Area | 534 km2 (206 sq mi) |
| Length | 65 km (40.4 mi) |
| Width | 15 km (9.3 mi) |
| Highest elevation | 823 m (2,700 ft) |
| Administration | |
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Argentina
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| Province | Tierra del Fuego |
Isla de los Estados (English: Staten Island, from the Dutch Stateneiland) is an Argentine island that lies 29 kilometres (18 mi) off the eastern extremity of the Argentine portion of Tierra del Fuego, from which it is separated by the Le Maire Strait. It was named after the Netherlands States-General, and its original Dutch name was identical to that of the New York borough of Staten Island.
The island is administratively part of the Argentinian province of Tierra del Fuego, and of the department and city of Ushuaia. It has been declared an "Ecological, Historic, and Tourist Provincial Reserve" ("Reserva provincial ecológica, histórica y turística"), with access limited to tours from Ushuaia.
The only settlement is the Puerto Parry Naval Station, located in a deep and narrow fjord on the northern coast of the island. The naval station, established in 1978, is manned by a team of four marines on a 45-day rotation. They monitor environmental conservation and ship movements, and provide emergency assistance.
Prior to European arrival, the islands were regularly visited by the Haush who inhabited the Mitre Peninsula.
The first European to discover the island was the Spanish naval captain Francisco de Hoces, when in 1526 the ship San Lesmes, from the Spanish expedition of Loaísa, separated from the rest in a storm, being displaced to the south parallel 55, becoming the discoverer of the great island east of Tierra del Fuego, which would later be called the Island of the States or Staten Island.
Almost a century after the Spaniards, the Dutch explorers Jacob le Maire and Willem Schouten on December 25, 1615, who named the island Staten Landt, or "Country of the Lords of the State." Le Maire and Schouten sailed their ship, Eendracht, through a route south of the Straits of Magellan, a route now called the Le Maire Strait. To his left Le Maire noted the land mass which he called Staten Landt; he theorized it was perhaps a portion of the great 'Southern Continent.' (The first European name for New Zealand was Staten Landt, the name given to it by the Dutch explorer Abel Tasman, who in 1642 became the first European to see the islands. Tasman also assumed it was part of the 'Southern Continent' later known as Antarctica.)
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Wikipedia