Wrangell is one of the oldest non-Native settlements in Alaska. In 1811, the Russians began fur trading with area Tlingit at the site of present-day Wrangell. In 1834, Baron Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, then head of Russian government interests in Russian America, ordered a stockade built near the Tlingit Naanyaa.aayi clan house of Chief Shakes that was located about 13 miles north of the large In 1868, a U.S. military post called Fort Wrangell was built at the site. The community around the post continued to grow through commerce with gold prospectors in the gold rushes of 1861, 1874-77 and 1897.

Logging, fishing and tourism are the current mainstays of the Wrangell area economy. One of the last two major sawmills in southeast Alaska is operated by the Silver Bay Logging Company just south of the city proper. The town has always been a major home to people of the Tlingit Kiks.adi clan, and a 70 year old Chief Shakes tribal house still stands on the original location of the Shakes house, a small island now inside of the Wrangell harbor. Until it was built, the Kiks. Adi had occupied the island since time immemorial. Being located on Wrangell island, Wrangell has two basics forms of transportation: ferry and airplane.