 The town is named after the island, which was named after Ferdinand Petrovich Wrangel, a Russian explorer and the administrator of the Russian-American Company from 1830 to 1835.Per the 2010 United States Census, the borough has a total area of , of which is land and is water.This is larger than the former City of Wrangell, which as of the 2000 census had a total area of , of which was land and was water.