The Stikine Strait is a strait

Strait

A strait or straits is a narrow, typically navigable channel of water that connects two larger, navigable bodies of water. It most commonly refers to a channel of water that lies between two land masses, but it may also refer to a navigable channel through a body of water that is otherwise not...

 in the Alexander Archipelago

Alexander Archipelago

The Alexander Archipelago is a long archipelago, or group of islands, of North America off the southeastern coast of Alaska. It contains about 1,100 islands, which are the tops of the submerged coastal mountains that rise steeply from the Pacific Ocean. Deep channels and fjords separate the...

 of Alaska

Alaska

Alaska is the largest state in the United States by area. It is situated in the northwest extremity of the North American continent, with Canada to the east, the Arctic Ocean to the north, and the Pacific Ocean to the west and south, with Russia further west across the Bering Strait...

, located between Zarembo Island

Zarembo Island

Zarembo Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeastern Alaska, United States. It lies directly south of Mitkof Island and northwest of Etolin Island. To the northwest is Kupreanof Island and to the southwest is Prince of Wales Island. It has a land area of 183.14 sq mi , making it...

 to the west and Etolin

Etolin Island

Etolin Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeastern Alaska, USA, at . It is between Prince of Wales Island, to its west, and the Alaska mainland, to its east. It is southwest of Wrangell Island. It was first charted in 1793 by James Johnstone, one of George Vancouver's...

 and Woronkofski Island

Woronkofski Island

Woronkofski Island is an island in the Alexander Archipelago of southeastern Alaska, United States. It is separated from Wrangell Island to the east by Zimovia Strait, just west of the city of Wrangell; to the west it is separated from Zarembo Island by Stikine Strait, and to the south from Etolin...

s just southwest of the City of Wrangell

Wrangell, Alaska

Wrangell is a city and borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. At the 2000 census the population was 2,308.Its Tlingit name is Ḵaachx̱aana.áakʼw . The Tlingit people residing in the Wrangell area, who were there centuries before Europeans, call themselves the Shtaxʼhéen Ḵwáan after the nearby Stikine...

. The strait's name derives from that of the Stikine River

Stikine River

The Stikine River is a river, historically also the Stickeen River, approximately 610 km long, in northwestern British Columbia in Canada and southeastern Alaska in the United States...

, the outlet of which is just northeast of Wrangell. The strait is shown on a 1844 Russian chart, but the name was first published on Russian Admiralty charts in 1848 as Proliv Stakhinskiy or Stakhin Strait. Other spelling variants over time have been Frances Strait, Stachin Strait, Stachine Strait, Stackine Strait, Stahkeen Strait, Stahkin Strait, Stakeen Strait, Stakhinski Strait, Stickeen Strait, and Stikeen Strait