The indigenous name of Barrow is Utqiagvik, which translates to “The place where we hunt snowy owls”. Barrow is the northernmost point in the USA, and the northernmost settlement of its size (5,176 population) in the world. The normal temperature in the winter is -50 degrees, and the summer 40 degrees. The sun sets in November and doesn’t rise again until January.
This city is entirely indigenous Inupiat with a subsistence lifestyle. Whaling is still a major part of life here, both in the spring and fall. When they catch a whale, the city has a huge celebration, and the blanket toss is one of the most exciting activities: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/rural-alaska/2022/07/01/the-spirit-of-the-whale-utqiagvik-celebrates-nalukataq-with-feast-and-dancing/.
When our plane flew below the clouds, we could see how the terrain had changed. We are 300+ miles above the Arctic Circle, and there are no trees and no grass! This is tundra, permafrost (ground that is frozen for at least two years).Flying over Barrow toward the Arctic Ocean to turn back toward the airport.Arctic Ocean. You can see two shades of blue-green. The lighter color is closer to shore and is shallow. The darker color indicates the quick deep drop off.There were some small pieces of ice in the Arctic Ocean.Headed toward shore.This airport was unique. One room, not really a terminal. This is baggage claim – not a conveyor belt. This is the Barrow Will Rogers-Wiley Post Airport. It was snowing when we landed. Alaska Airlines flies one flight in and one flight out daily, except Tuesdays, when there are two flights in and out. The flights are all to and from Anchorage.The Top of the World Hotel. This is where we stayed.All the buildings here are on stilts due to the permafrost and the periodic Arctic Ocean swells. There are no paved streets, they are all dirt/mud, so all of the stairs are like this one, to help scrape mud from shoes.My first look at the Arctic Ocean on the ground. One block from our hotel. Polar bears are often seen here.Here are three polar bears on the beach just one block from our hotel. But this was a week before we were there. We did not see any live polar bears.This is Barrow’s famous Whale Bone Arch. It is the jawbone of a Bowhead Whale, and it is planted about 10 feet deep in the ground here.Here we are at the Whale Bone Arch.This is a typical street in Barrow. And typical houses. Arctic Ocean in the background.There are many potholes everywhere.This is a restaurant. Notice the spray-painted sign: Fish Head Soup.The grocery store. Prices were sky high.$16 for a jar of mayonnaise!Ilisagvik College, Alaska’s Tribal College.This is the head of a large female bowhead whale, about 15 feet long. This particular whale was caught in 1987, was 51 feet long and weighed about 100,000 pounds.
Bowhead whales spend most of their lives near sea ice, they do not migrate to warmer waters. They have very thick blubber, up to 1-1/2 feet in thickness. These are considered very large whales, up to 60 feet long, and may weigh as much as 120,000 pounds, with a lifespan similar to humans. Bowheads are slow swimmers, swim with their mouths open and strain zooplankton through their baleen plates.
They regularly break through ice up to two feet thick. The bowheads are of great nutritional and cultural significance for native Inupiats for oil, baleen (filter feeding system inside their mouths), meat and muktuk (skin with blubber). Barrow High School football field. Bright blue artificial turf. Interesting story about this field. When Barrow High School played their first home game, they played on a gravel field. A philanthropist in Florida heard about it, so she donated the money to build this field with turf.Home of the Barrow High School Whalers!This is a freighter offloading freight to a barge, which will bring the freight to the shore.At the Arctic Ocean, temperature approximately 35 degrees.This is the “sand” on this beach.These are shacks on the outside of town that hunters use for goose season.Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital.Across the street from the hospital, these are the barracks/apartments for the doctors and nurses that work at the hospital.This is a wood frame boat covered in seal skin. Seal hunters and whalers use boats like this one when they are on a hunt.Seal skin being stretched and dried.Monument to Will Rogers and Wiley Post, who were killed near the airport in 1935. Rogers was a “humorist”, actor, author and social commentator and very famous in his day.This is a model of a Bowhead Whale inside the Inupiat Heritage Center, which documents the lives and traditions of the indigenous Inupiat people, who have lived off the sea for many centuries, fishing, whaling and seal hunting.Parka made from wolf fur and lambskin lining.Sealskin pants.Waterproof parka made from seal intestines.Whalers use tents like this to sleep and cook in when they are out on the ice whaling. They sleep on caribou skins inside the tent. They cook on and keep warm with a Coleman stove.Polar bear.
