anyone know anything about Anaktuvuk Pass? (Barrow, Bettles: for sale, houses, school district)

[Future Trooper]

i see Anaktuvuk Pass on the map and tried to find a little info about it and really couldnt find anything

so could anyone tell me what is it like there ?

[Terryj]

There isn't much there, it's a native village of about 300 people. It's about the half way point for trucker using the haul road.

[stiffnecked]

Anaktuvuk Pass isn't on the Haul Road. You can only get there by flying. It's the jumping off point for trips into the Gates of the Arctic National Park.

Alaska Division of Community Advocacy (http://www.commerce.state.ak.us/dca/commdb/CF_BLOCK.cfm?comm_boro_name=Anaktuvuk+Pass&DATA_TY PE=Overview,Economy - broken link)

[Marty Van Diest]

You can't drive there...its about 50 miles west of the haul road. I have never been there but I've been close. I used to live in Bettles a LONG time ago. Some people from Anaktuvik Pass would come to Bettles and trade skin masks for groceries.

It's an Eskimo Village. They are one of the most recent of the nomadic groups. They settled there because the caribou would almost always migrate through that pass and it was easy to get their winter meat.

Why do you ask, are you going to teach there?

[trlhiker]

Here is a webcam from there.Weather Cameras Site Page - Federal Aviation Administration

[Future Trooper]

thanks for the information reason i ask is i read a story about Northern Alaska and the author lived near the Gates of the Arctic National park and describes it as being so beautiful that not even words can describe what you see

[Majik_Imaje]

Well you have the last part correct !!

The Nanamiut - the inland group of Inupiat call Anaktuvuk Pass home. About 250 miles south of Barrow, the village is located along the north-flowing Anaktuvuk River in the central portion of th Brooks Range. These mountains, running east to west, form the southern boundary of the North Slope Borough. The Inupiat ancestry in this interior, mountainous region goes back at least 4,000 years and the immediate location around Anaktuvuk Pass ('place of caribou droppings') has been occupied for about 500 years. There is an ancient relationship between the caribou, the Nanamuit and the mountain country. The pass itself is a historic caribou migration route. It was a collapse in their population, in the early twentieth century, that led to the near abandoment of this site. Several families returned in the 1940's and were the latest pioneers in the re-establishment of this traditional community.

Since the current village is located in the region that has become the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, it has an increasing reputation as a destination for those visitors seeking wilderness backpacking and camping adventrues. These visitors find some traces of the old, sod houses, and summer tent sites that used to make up the village, but the phsical appearance of Anaktuvuk Pass today is one of modern public service buildings, schools, homes and public utilities, Residents utilize a fully digital local telephone system, local dial-up Internet, a community teleconference center, cable television, public radio broadcast, an interactive video distance education system, wide area data network, and seveal two -way radio technologies for their telecommunicatin needs, Interconnection with the regional and global network is by satellite. there is a year-round museum in Anaktuvuk Pass which focuses on the early natural, geological and cultural history of the area. The locally managed museum also displays Nunamiut clothing, household goods and hunting implements used around the time of first contact with Westerners.

There are about 300 people living in Anaktuvuk Pass today and nearly 140 in the work force. Around 90 percent of the population is Inupiat ('Eskimo') and the village economy is largely based on subsistence hunting of caribou as it has been through the ages. In the 'cash economy' the private sector employs about one-third of the work force; the North Slope Borough employs over forty percent; and the NSB School District just over twenty percent. Residents also produce the popular Anaktuvuk Pass caribou skin masks and carvings for sale.

[Floyd_Davidson]

Originally Posted by gdude

thanks for the information reason i ask is i read a story about Northern Alaska and the author lived near the Gates of the Arctic National park and describes it as being so beautiful that not even words can describe what you see

That's a very good description of Anaktuvuk Pass! Fly in on a clear day, and it takes your breath away.

On the other hand, if you've seen it before and you fly in on a day when it is socked in, that sort of takes your breath away too! Knowing that is in a valley surrounded by huge moutains that you do not want to interact with......

[Future Trooper]

Originally Posted by Majik_Imaje

Well you have the last part correct !!

The Nanamiut - the inland group of Inupiat call Anaktuvuk Pass home. About 250 miles south of Barrow, the village is located along the north-flowing Anaktuvuk River in the central portion of th Brooks Range. These mountains, running east to west, form the southern boundary of the North Slope Borough. The Inupiat ancestry in this interior, mountainous region goes back at least 4,000 years and the immediate location around Anaktuvuk Pass ('place of caribou droppings') has been occupied for about 500 years. There is an ancient relationship between the caribou, the Nanamuit and the mountain country. The pass itself is a historic caribou migration route. It was a collapse in their population, in the early twentieth century, that led to the near abandoment of this site. Several families returned in the 1940's and were the latest pioneers in the re-establishment of this traditional community.

Since the current village is located in the region that has become the Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, it has an increasing reputation as a destination for those visitors seeking wilderness backpacking and camping adventrues. These visitors find some traces of the old, sod houses, and summer tent sites that used to make up the village, but the phsical appearance of Anaktuvuk Pass today is one of modern public service buildings, schools, homes and public utilities, Residents utilize a fully digital local telephone system, local dial-up Internet, a community teleconference center, cable television, public radio broadcast, an interactive video distance education system, wide area data network, and seveal two -way radio technologies for their telecommunicatin needs, Interconnection with the regional and global network is by satellite. there is a year-round museum in Anaktuvuk Pass which focuses on the early natural, geological and cultural history of the area. The locally managed museum also displays Nunamiut clothing, household goods and hunting implements used around the time of first contact with Westerners.

There are about 300 people living in Anaktuvuk Pass today and nearly 140 in the work force. Around 90 percent of the population is Inupiat ('Eskimo') and the village economy is largely based on subsistence hunting of caribou as it has been through the ages. In the 'cash economy' the private sector employs about one-third of the work force; the North Slope Borough employs over forty percent; and the NSB School District just over twenty percent. Residents also produce the popular Anaktuvuk Pass caribou skin masks and carvings for sale.

wow i thought that Anaktuvuk Pass would be one of those places that people call "dead" i never thought it would be filled with so much life and energy i just figured they were like Amish people and didnt use modern inventions but i guess they do thanks for taking the time out of your day to post this information!!!

[stiffnecked]

I haven't been any place in Alaska that didn't have some type of modern "invention".