Information About

Icy Bay

Icy Bay

Quick Facts
Region:
  • Valdez-Cordova (CA)
Nearest City:
About

at terminus of Guyot and Malaspina Glaciers, 66 mi. NW of Yakutat, Malaspina Coastal Plain. 16 miles long.

History of Icy Bay

Explored by Joseph Whidbey June 4, 1794, and named by Captain Vancouver (1798, v. 3, p. 204, 210, and 225), RN, but not shown on Vancouver's chart. This name was translated into Russian and is shown by Captain Tebenkov (1852, map 7), Imperial Russian Navy (IRN), as "Z(aliv) Ledyanoi." Early descriptions of this bay state that it was "composed of snow-ice, about thirty feet in height at the water-cliff, and probably based on a low muddy beach" (US@C&GS, 1869, p. 141- 142). The bay asp.een and described in the 18th and 19th centuries, seems to have been an indentation of the Malaspina Glacier frontMalaspinanear where the mouth of the Yahtse River is now. TheYahtsent Icy Bay was uncovered by the retreat of the glacier since 1899.