Hiiumaa

Hiiumaa emerged from the Baltic Sea 8500 years ago due to isostatic uplift after the retreat of the ice cap.[6][5] Mesolithic settlements are found on the island's Kõpu Peninsula from about 5500 BC.[5][7] These settlements seem to be related mostly to seal hunting and extend into the earliest Neolithic. As Hiiumaa is constantly uplifting the local sea level was 20 m higher than today at this time. For this reason these settlements are located far from the modern coastline. The pottery found at these sites is of the Narva Type and is similar to that found on Saaremaa and the Estonian mainland.[7]

A series of stone-cist graves are also present on the island from the Late Bronze Age through to the Late Iron Age.[7][8]

The first documented record of the island of Dageida was made by contemporary chroniclers in 1228, when Hiiumaa and the rest of Estonia were conquered by Germanic crusaders. In 1254, Hiiumaa was divided between the Bishopric of Ösel-Wiek and the Livonian branch of the Teutonic Order, acting partly on behalf of the Hanseatic League.

Kõpu Lighthouse is one of the best-known landmarks in Hiiumaa.

The island was part of Swedish Estonia from 1563 to 1721, after which it passed to the Russian Empire as part of the Governorate of Estonia, though Dagö's Swedish population kept most of their privileges. Most of the island's previously numerous Swedish-speaking population emigrated or were "Estonianised" during the period of Imperial Russian rule, although a minority remains to this day. Estonian Swedes are also known as "aibofolke" (meaning island people in Swedish) or "rannarootslased" (meaning coastal Swedes in Estonian).

Hiiumaa was occupied during World War I by the Imperial German Army, in Operation Albion. After the war, it became a part of independent Estonia.

The waters near Hiiumaa were active during World War II:[9]

• 23 June 1941- The Soviet destroyer Gnevny was sunk by a German seamine.
• 25 June- the Soviet minesweeper T-208 Shkiv was destroyed by a German seamine.
• 27 June- Two German motor torpedo boats, S43 and S106, were destroyed by Soviet seamines.
• 1 July- the Soviet submarine M-81 was destroyed by a German seamine north of Hiiumaa.
• 7 July- the Soviet minesweeper T-216 was sunk.
• 30 July- the Soviet minesweeper T-201 Zarjad was sunk.
• 10 August- the German submarine U-144 was sunk by a torpedo from the Soviet submarine SC-307.
• Hiiumaa Island was annexed by the Soviet Union in 1940, by Nazi Germany in 1941, and by the Soviets again in 1944.

It was part of the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic until the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. During the Soviet era, Hiiumaa was declared a restricted zone, closed to foreigners and to most mainland Estonians. Since 1991, the island has been a part of independent Estonia. A number of derelict Soviet era forts and communication towers are still present on the islands northern coast.[10]

Beach vegetation on Hiiumaa

The fauna and flora of Hiiumaa is similar to the Estonian mainland. The mammal fauna includes elk, red deer, roe deer, wild boars, foxes, lynxes and martens.[5] Wolves have recently started to repopulate the island after being made locally extinct.[12]

Minks were also reintroduced in 2000, after they were exterminated by trappers.[13] Since the end of the 1990s the island shelters a conservation project aimed at restoring populations of European mink, an endangered species of which there is about only 1,000 individual specimens left in Europe as of 2017. This project started with removing from the island all American minks that had escaped from breeding farms, and reintroducing some European minks. The latter started breeding.[14]

The bird species found on the island include black storks, golden eagles, cranes, avocets and swans. The forests are dominated by pine and deciduous trees, the rest of the uncultivated land is covered by swamps and dunes. The island has about 1000 species of large plants of which 50 are protected.[5]

The exposed geology of Hiiumaa is composed of Paleozoic Limestone which dips towards the South, covered by glacial sediments. In the North of the island the limestones are Ordovician and they young upwards to the Silurian in the South.[11] These limestones formed at 30 degrees South and have since been moving North with the rest of the Estonian block.[15] Bore holes have found Cambrian sedimentary rocks and a crystalline basement.[16]

In the Ordovician (c. 455 million years ago) the sea floor was hit by a meteorite forming the 4 km wide Kärdla Impact Structure.[16][15] This structure was then filled with Paleozoic sediment. It located about 4 km west-southwest of Kärdla and is barely visible in the modern geomorphology. The crater is well preserved at depth, with a clear rim, breccia and minerals and rocks formed from the heat and pressure of the impact.[16]

The limestone is overlain by Pleistocene glacial deposits that were deposited as the ice cap retreated 11 to 12 thousand years ago. These include terminal moraines, the two most prominent being one in the South of Island running towards the North-East and another forming the Kõpu Peninsula.[11]

• Aleksander Maaker (1890-1968), the last traditional player of the torupill (Estonian bagpipe)
• Juhan Maaker (1845-1930), Estonian folk musician
• Lydia Mei (1896-1965), Estonian artist
• Natalie Mei (1900-1975), Estonian artist
• Erkki-Sven Tüür (b. 1959), Estonian composer of contemporary classical music.
• Roman von Ungern-Sternberg (1885-1921), White military commander in the Russian Civil War.