What does Barrow have to offer? (Ketchikan, Wasilla: house, entertainment, traffic)

[awp_rooftops]

Barrow is good for 100$ for a case of beer.If you like beer bring $$$.Birding over 240 different birds travel throught there.Hunting, if you are 1/4 native or more.Flat ,unless you go to the gravel pit where they got a hill.There's three villages barrow, browerville ,narl you drive from one end to the other in minutes.Windy and cold.If you do go, try to go on the ocean when the ice breaks up (june)its a whole different world there.Barrow is" the city "when it comes to compare to the other villages on the North Slope.Very quite when all the kids stop riding there atv's.If you expect too much you might get dissapointed.If you don't like tree's this place got none at all.If your lucky on a good day you might be able to see a polar bear, everyone that goes there might not get to see a polar bear or maybe a white snowy owl.Dog lover's might have a hard time with some of the local dogs.Asians mostly own all the resturants but two.The food was good.Coffee lover's bring your own,or go to the small market where they got the one bank well's fargo.Don't get too sick there,they might fly you out.If you are ,non-native, most likely you will be paid more than the natives for work.They have "eskimo time" don't be surprise that they are late.Barrow has no waiting in lines, only at the airport.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Ignore most of the replies. They are from people who don't have a clue.

The exception is this person "Stiffnecked". Good articles. He's been here.

It is not extremely muddy in Barrow during the summer. Sheesh, we only get like 4.6 inches of rain all year long, and most of that consists of about 30 inches of very dry snow. The rest is almost all drizzle in September.

Barrow is an all day, every day, adventure.

[stiffnecked]

I liked Barrow for what it was and is. It's one of those love/hate relationships. Either you like it or you don't. The first person I met in Barrow that didn't work at the police station was Sadie Neakok, she was the magistrate there for many years. She gave me a lot of good advice about Barrow.

I am looking forward to my next trip up..

[geepondy]

Do you get mosquitoes in the summer? About the expensive beer comment, if that is the case I bet a brewery with a brew-pub would be popular up there.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by geepondy

Do you get mosquitoes in the summer? About the expensive beer comment, if that is the case I bet a brewery with a brew-pub would be popular up there.

There are lots of mosquitoes out on the tundra, but if you stay down town there are very few. Out on the tundra it depends though, because usually the wind is blowing hard enough to keep them down.

On a calm day however, it is entirely possible to be eaten alive! Just take hike for a mile or two walking into a 3-6 mph breeze (that's as calm as it ever gets, and 10-12 mph is normal). As long as you walk into the wind, no problem. But then turn around and walk back to where you came from, with the wind. There will be a cloud of mosquitos thick enough to block out the sun... :-)

Importation of alcohol is regulated here, and sale is prohibited. Hence a brewery is not legal.

[DannyL]

Originally Posted by nyjz1298

Barrow. What does it have to offer?

A super place to move the capital to.......

[stiffnecked]

Yea, I bet the cost of electricity in Barrow and Juneau are now about equal.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Yea, I bet the cost of electricity in Barrow and Juneau are now about equal.

It's probably more expensive in Juneau, and might have been even before this problem.

Remember that we pump natural gas out of the ground here, so energy from that (for electricity or for heating homes) is cheap.

They always say there is a 35 year known supply of natural gas here; but I heard a geologist report to the NSB Assembly once... He told them we have 35 years, but cautioned that the number didn't mean anything at all, because if a few wells are pumped dry they just go drill a few more, but they always quit drilling when they have tapped enough to last 35 years at the currently estimate usage rates. He said if the rate increases, they'll just drill a couple more and still have 35 years of known reserves.

The disgusting side of that is until now there has been no effort at all to drill for natural gas at any of the other villages on the North Slope. I can't verify it, but I'm told the reason is because Eskimos Inc supplies fuel oil via barge to the villages, so drilling for gas would interfere with their profit margin. The Borough, however, has subsidized the cost of fuel in the villages, so it is a way to transfer oil taxes to Eskimos Inc shareholders (ASRC). But it has gotten so outrageous that the Borough is now going to do some exploratory drilling.

[geepondy]

Thank you Floyd. I have been reading thru the various Barrow threads and have found your posts to be articulate, informative and entertaining. My cousin lives in Dillingham and doesn't find it a lot of fun but is there somehow for the money. Someday I hope to make it up there and see Denali national park and that area in general. In the summer, of course.

[MAINEr]

Originally Posted by stiffnecked

Your absolutely correct. Some of us just to live life and do it without the fluff.

Well said, we like to live without the fluff.