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I live in one of the most unusual places on this planet. My family moved to Barrow Alaska a little over a year ago. Barrow Alaska is the town at the “top of the world” the northernmost village on the North American continent. We live in the northernmost town of more than 2,000 residents in the world. The North Slope Borough that was formed in 1972 as the ‘county seat’. Barrow serves as a hub for transportation, regional government administration, communications, economic development and education in the region.
In the summer, we have 24 hours of daylight (the midnight sun) for 72 days. In the winter, we have 24 hours of darkness (a little twilight at around 2 marks the suns attempt to come up) for 63 days. This makes a very interesting way of living. People will walk at all hours of day because of this type of light. In the summer when the kids are not in school they will play all time of day even in the middle of the night since the sun is always shining.
We have a very interesting archeological history and one of the nearest sights is the Birnick site, with some remains of 16 dwelling mounds which at one time were sod houses (house dug in the dirt) and artifacts their go as far back as 1,200 years ago. These archaeological sites indicate the Inupiat people lived around Barrow as far back as AD 500.
The traditional name for our community is Ukpiagvik (“place for hunting owls”). Yet, in 1825-26 a British officer named Beechey on a surveying expedition named this place after Sir John Barrow of the British Admiralty. As you can see that is the one that stuck and is used today by everyone including on all the maps.
The United States Army established a meteorological and magnetic research station at Barrow in 1881, and the Cape Smythe Whaling and Trading Station was established in 1893.
A Presbyterian church was established in 1888 in Barrow, also in 1901 a United States Post Office was opened.
Northeast of us lies a low peninsula called Point Barrow. This spot marks the meeting point of the Chukchi Sea on the West and the Beaufort Sea to the East, and both are part of the Arctic Ocean. This place has seen centuries of the Natives hunters and travelers in addition to passage of many other explorers, sailing ships of the nineteenth century commercial whalers, traders, solo adventurers (my family). And at this time in history transporting barges with equipment modules for Prudhoe Bay’s oilfields to the East of Barrow.
The population has increased over the years with the business and local government activities. At this time we have 4,469 residents. The main racial makeup of the Barrow is 57.19% Inupiat (Eskimo), 21.83% White, 9.41% Asian, 1.35% Pacific Islander, 1.00% African American and the rest is made up of other races. The main employment is fifty percent of the approximate 2,300 person workforce is for the North Slope Borough; fourteen percent for the School District and the remaining 1/3 work for private businesses.
I have been to The Great State Of Alaska Twice in my life. The first time I was in so much Awe I am glad I had the photo evidence that I was there. I have driven on most of the roads on the maps to completion. I have been in the midnight sun up in Dead Horse. I got so Juiced with all the sun I don't think I barely slept for over two weeks. It is incredible. I always thought that I would move there as I think I left part of My soul as a beacon. As I get older the Dream becomes more of a blurr but the beacon still boons loud. I promised my nephew that I would take him up for his 16th birthday. That will be in less than two years. I am thinking of sharing the experience of the midnight sun because it is so unique. His Birthday is December 1st, so I will let him decide on winter or summer. I have never been in the winter, but a friend of mine that lives there says that the lodges, CHena Hot Springs (I liked) are still full of frisky Japanese. She said it is supposed to be good luck to conceive a child under the Northern Lights. I wonder if this is just an excuse.
I need some info about Barrow nd would love to hear from you!
Here goes...
My Visit to the Top of the World
Barrow, Alaska (pop. 4500):
Barrow is located on the northernmost point in the United States. This city is 340 miles north of the Arctic Circle. It's the farthest-north settlement of more than 2000 people in the world. In Barrow, the sun doesn't set for 84 days in the summer, and it doesn't rise for 64 days in the winter!
Barrow is located in an area that is both a wetlands and a desert!
The land is very flat and only thaws to a little ways down and below that is permafrost so water doesn't really have much of a place to drain to or much time to drain before it freezes solid again.
In the summer when the surface of the tundra thaws, the ground is so marshy and wet you need a tundra buggy (a special vehicle with comically wide tires) to travel over much of it. Yet with less than ten inches of water precipitation per year (this includes both rain and about 14 to 20 inches of snow which translates to 2 to 3 inches of water), Barrow is a desert. Technically an Arctic desert, but a desert nonetheless due to the fact that annual water precipitation is under ten inches.
Heated buildings are suspended above the ground on poles sunk deep into the ground, if the buildings rested on the ground, the heat from them would melt the permafrost and they'd sink into it.
The town is divided into the southwest section and the northeast section by a pond called the Isatkoak Lagoon. The southwest section
is the older part of Barrow, with streets running at various curves and angles as early settlers just built houses wherever looked good.
The northeast section is newer, with streets and houses laid out in a grid.
The North Slope of Alaska (the area north of the Brooks Range) including Barrow area has so many lakes, it looks like a cross-section
of foam when viewed from an airplane. When I saw it from the air it looked like there was just enough land to define the lakes. Minnesota has more lakes than any state except Alaska—Minnesota has between eleven and twelve thousand lakes over ten acres in size. Alaska doesn't count a body of water as a lake unless it's over twenty acres in size, and Alaska has over three million of them!
Most of those lakes are on the North Slope tundra. From my perspective, that area is really more like one giant lake with a lot of surface vegetation rather than a collection of millions of regular-sized lakes... though I might be biased because I'm from Minnesota. :-)
About two-thirds of the people who live there are Inupiaq (in-oop-ee-ack) Eskimos. They do live in igloos, but many of the igloos have central heating, cable TV and DSL internet... You see, the word "igloo" means simply "house" in the Inupiaq language. No one lives in houses made of ice or snow, though I strongly suspect (yet forgot to ask) that many Eskimos know how to build one in case an emergency shelter is required when they are out hunting or camping.
The largest employer in Barrow, by far, is the public school system.
About 25% of Barrow's population consists of children of school age kindergarten through grade 12.
The Inupiaq people hunt whales, seals and caribou, as well as many local birds and they also catch fish. Non-Inupiaq people are prohibited by law from hunting all of these creatures in this region because the Inupiaq depend on them for their survival. It's how they get most of their food.
The Inupiaq people hunt whales by throwing a harpoon with an explosive tip. They can't "catch" a whale, because whales can dive, so when a whale surfaces to take a breath and then dives, they observe how fast it's going, what direction it's headed (and probably lots of other details I couldn't understand without 20 or so years of whale hunting experience under my belt.) Using that observation and their prior experience and knowledge, they can guess where it will surface, though whales aren't very predictable so the Eskimos get it wrong most of the time, they get it right often enough to catch usually about 30 whales a season. When a whale surfaces near one of their boats, they throw the harpoon into the whale about four feet behind the eye and the tip explodes, destroying the whale's brain and causing instant death.
Polar bears can be seen around Barrow year-round, though they have been hunted for centuries so they know to avoid people unless they feel threatened.
They have never in their history attached their bodies or boats to a whale. It always seemed to the Eskimos like this method would probably result in lots of fatalities, and the early white whale hunters proved the Eskimos' suspicions to be well-founded by attaching themselves to whales via harpoons tied to their boats with ropes, and experiencing lots of fatalities (which occurred when the harpooned whales dove into the frigid waters, taking along the Caucasian whalers' boats with the Caucasian whalers still in them.)
Whale meat can be eaten boiled or raw. When raw the usual preparation is to eat it cut into cubes, frozen and dipped into seal oil for seasoning. Sometimes, tastes of traditional Inupiaq food are offered to guests. I was not offered any but I think this is a good thing.
Either I would not like it and would have an unpleasant memory, or I would like it but be frustrated at being unable to obtain any in the future, so either way I'd lose out.
Many of the locals work for the school system, the library, heritage center, grocery stores, police department & other government offices, airport or hotels, but some provide tourist services such as tours or car rentals, and some produce traditional art and sell them. This way they can earn money to pay for modern conveniences including electricity, natural gas, water and sewer, cable TV, internet access, etc.
Water is the most expensive utility, the natural gas for heating, producing electricity and cooking comes from gas wells owned by the Inupiaq. Water is desalinized from ocean water.
Roads are all gravel; the only pavement is to be found on the runway and taxiing areas at the airport. A truck goes around spraying water on the streets to keep down the dust. There are a total of 42 miles of roads in Barrow. Surprisingly, there are at least four cab companies! Well, not all that surprising--cars are expensive to buy, maintain and repair, and hard to keep running in the winter. I can see just paying cab fare and letting the cab company worry about the vehicles.
We visited the Barrow library, which has six internet terminals and is a fairly decent-sized, modern library for a community of 4500.
We took one two-hour tour to Point Barrow, provided by the company Alaskan Arctic Adventures (c), and it was great! While we didn't see any polar bears (you see one about once every ten tours) we did catch a glimpse of a seal and some arctic birds. The tour took us past a pile of bones from whales recently killed on a hunt, and we saw the summer camp area and an archeological site (though we couldn't approach the dig very closely, for obvious reasons.) We were also shown the town and given lots of interesting info about it. At the end of the tour our tour guide, Bunna (pronounced buh-nuh) asked if anyone had anything else planned for the next hour, and when no one did he took us on another tour to see the more of the tundra wildlife and plants (the tour to the point is mostly gravelly and sandy ground, so you don't usually see plants or land animals) on that extra tour we saw about a half-dozen snowy owls! I've seen them stuffed, but seeing live ones in the wild is something else entirely.
It's so cold in Barrow for so much of the year, when it finally warms up into the 30's you'll see kids playing outside in t-shirts. When we took the tour to Point Barrow, Bunna wore no jacket or hat, and on his feet were sandals without socks through the whole tour, even while standing out on the point with us though the wind chill out at the point was in the teens to 20's!! I know how we looked to him with our hoods cinched up to keep our ears warm: When Jane and I went to New Orleans one year in January, we were wearing t-shirts and shorts outside while the locals were wearing heavy jackets and shivering. A restaurant we ate at on Bourbon Street was closing as soon as we left, several hours before there regular close time, because "It's so cold out we haven't had any other customers all day." The temperature was around 55. It's amazing how adaptable people are to different climates.
All the outside doors open inward in case the snow drifts up against the door, you can still get it open and tunnel out.
Everything costs more in Barrow because shipping is more expensive, but perishable items are really high-priced because they have to be flown in. Milk costs eight dollars a gallon, bread between four and five dollars a loaf.
The only ways to get to Barrow are by airplane, boat (for a few weeks in summer only) and though it is possible to make the trip with a caravan of special vehicles (a type of enclosed snowmobile), it would be dangerous and difficult and should only be attempted by experienced arctic adventurers.
Summertime daily high temperatures are usually in the 30's to near 50.
The average low temperature is minus 15 or colder from December through March, though temperatures can and often do dip into the minus thirties and minus forties and sometimes the minus fifties. Since the land around Barrow is so flat and the sea is frozen over in winter, it's often windy and winter wind chill temperatures (the effective temperature on bare skin) average somewhere between OMG and WTF.
Though the weather is harsh, the people are warm, the culture is rich, and crime is practically nonexistent. I saw a lot of kids' bikes parked around, none of them were locked. Part of the reason for this is that there's nowhere to go with stolen goods. In a community of 4500, most people know most people's business, and when a kid from one family loses a bike and a kid from another family suddenly and inexplicably starts riding one exactly like it, people are going to put two and two together. The shame factor is the biggest deterrent to crime.
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I went to Alaska because I heard it was such a beautiful state, and I arranged for the day-and-a-half side trip to Barrow because I've always wanted to experience a day with no sunset at least once in my life. I knew little about the town, other than the climate and a few minor details. I was worried we'd be bored there.
I was way off the mark on that one.
Fairbanks and Anchorage were OK, so was Denali Park; very scenic but none were all that fascinating— lots of lakes, rivers, mountains and trees--basically just Colorado with glaciers. If we hadn't made the trip to Barrow, I'd just as soon have gone to Colorado, skipped the glaciers and saved a couple thousand dollars! (Don't get me wrong. Alaska is still an incredible paradise for those looking for untamed wilderness, with well over half a million square miles of it, almost all of which is unoccupied.)
But when we stepped off the plane in Barrow, though, we entered a whole different reality. We were only there for a day and a half, but it completely blew us away and while I can't speak for mt wife, I think I am fundamentally changed by the experience. I see the world differently now. I wish I could explain how or why visiting this remote location had this effect on me, but I don't know any words to describe it. I know my wife was pretty impressed because she let me know (several times) she's willing to move there if I am.
If you ever decide to go to Barrow, I hope your experience is as pleasant as mine was.
Are there specific areas of the "city" that are recommeded? Is there relatively safe and clean housing near Ilisagvik College? Also, what are the conditions of housing? Is there a preferred real estate agent to contact?
I lived in Bethel, Ak..I can tell you Barrow is bone chillin cold. It does stay dark for a long time during the winter. Are you in the medical or educational field? The eskimos are nice a they appreciate everything you do for them. Dont ask what you are eating. just taste it and you like it or you dont..It's rude not to eat what the eskimo serve you..most of it taste good, smells bad and you really dont want to know what's in it..
Are there specific areas of the "city" that are recommeded? Is there relatively safe and clean housing near Ilisagvik College? Also, what are the conditions of housing? Is there a preferred real estate agent to contact?
Hah, this thread is a real hoot!
All parts of Barrow are just as safe as any other part! In Barrow, as is generally true everywhere in bush Alaska, the people you need to worry about are NOT strangers... they are the people you choose to party with. Anyone else is extremely unlikely to ever harm you. It's your drinking partners that are dangerous.
I really enjoyed reading what various folks had to say about Barrow. Fascinating. There were a few mistakes of course, but I won't quibble about most of them. One point should be cleared up though: it is rarely if ever "bone chilling cold" in Barrow! We are surrounded by an ocean on three sides, and that very significantly moderates the weather here. If you want "bone chilling cold", go visit Fairbanks in January! It commonly gets 15-25 degrees colder in the Interior than it does here. The average temperature in Fairbanks doesn't mean much, because it is always a lot colder or a lot hotter, and swings back and forth between extremes (like -65F in winter and 95F in summer). Barrow doesn't see many large swings in temperatures.
On the other hand, the average temperature in Barrow is significantly cooler than anywhere else. Of course that is something you'll get very used to, and as with everyone else here, a hot (65F) day in the summer will be almost untolerable!
There are several significant points about weather here. We get only about 5 inches equivalent rainfall per year, and part of that is about 24 inches of snow (very dry snow that crunches when you walk on it, and is not wet or slippery). This is a desert. It is also very flat. If your dog runs away, you can watch it for three days... The nearest hill that is 100 feet high is more than 100 miles from here.
We have at least a trace of snow fall on far more than half the days of a year. And there aren't many clear days, or days that don't get down to freezing for at least part of the day. That is very pleasant though, as it freezes solid in the first week of October, and it doesn't rain again, or get above freezing, until
late May.
Barrow is a very international place, with many different kinds of people. It is common to hear 4 or 5 languages being spoken in a restaraunt while you have lunch or dinner. It is impossible to do anything here without rubbing elbows with people who are distinctly different than you are. But everyone shares a few common characteristics. We all live in a place with a harsh unforgiving climate, we are all seriously into adventure, and we all help each other. Even people you don't like are still your neighbors, and if they need a hand they get it. They'll give you a hand too; and you will need it.
The key to knowing whether you'll like living in Alaska is whether you are adventurous, or not. And Barrow is the most adventerous place in Alaska to live! People who really like to work out a schedule two weeks in advance, and know what they'll be doing most of the time well in advance, simply hate Alaska. Living in Barrow is an adventure, all day every day. If that is what makes your little heart go pitter patter, this is a virtual paradize!
If you have more questions, either general or specific, ask and I'll check back and try to answer. Feel free to take a look at my web page too: removed and I don't mind email either, at floyd@apaflo.com.
Last edited by Marka; 08-06-2006 at 01:50 PM..
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Living in Barrow
Information about Barrow
