Keppel Island

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For the Keppel Islands of Australia, including Great Keppel Island, see Keppel Bay Islands National Park

Keppel Island (Spanish: 'Isla de la Vigia') is one of the Falkland Islands, lying between Saunders Island and Pebble Island, and near Golding Island to the north of West Falkland on Keppel Sound. It has an area of just under 40 km².

1 History
- 1.1 Missionary station
2 References
3 External links

The island is named after First Lord of the Admiralty, Admiral Augustus Keppel.

The island became a sheep farm in 1885, initially doubling as a missionary settlement aimed at the Yaghan people of Tierra del Fuego. More recently, it became a nature reserve. It also has a small settlement on the east coast.

The mission on Keppel Island was established by Captain William Parker Snow in 1855, for the South American Mission Society, and remained in operation until 1898. It had been proposed by Captain Allen Gardiner, founder of the Society as a means to remove the "savages" from their environment. The Yaghan were "recruited" as potato farmers, and many of them died from tuberculosis. Today, the mission bailiff's house, the chapel and the stone walls of the Yaghan dwellings still remain intact; some provide foundations for present day buillings.

The Yahgans did not arrive on the island until a few years after the building of "Cranmer Station" (named for Thomas Cranmer, the protestant martyr) near Committee Bay. One of the more famous residents of Cranmer Station was Jemmy Button who had learnt English, and visited England aboard the Beagle.