TIL: Barrow, Alaska
16Facts about Barrow
*Native name is Utqiagvik. (Pronounced UUT-kee-AH-vik)
*Barrow is the northernmost city in the United States, and the ninth northernmost city in the world. It is also mostly only accessible by airplane.
*Gasoline is expensive, as the price is set only once per year.
*It is 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle.
*When the sun sets here on Nov. 18 or 19, it doesn’t rise again for 65 days.
*Barrow is not connected by road to the rest of Alaska, even though it is the economic center of the North Slope Borough. Note: There is a town called Deadhorse that is connected, though. -lljk
*Barrow’s sister city is Ushuaia, Argentina
*Archaeological sites in the area indicate the Inupiat lived in this area as far back as 500 AD. A little over 60% of the population is Inupiat Eskimo.
*Scientists say the Arctic is warming twice as fast at the rest of the planet, and former North Slope Borough Mayor Edward Itta has called Barrow “ground zero for climate-change science.”
*It is the location of a plane crash that killed humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post on August 15, 1935
*On average, Barrow’s high temperature is above freezing only 120 days per year (average high of 40-50 F on it’s warmest days), while temperatures are at or below zero degrees 160 days per year. Wind chills can be below -70 F.
*Barrow was the setting a few different movies and tv shows: An Idiot Abroad, Big Miracle and even the NFL Network did a documentary on the Barrow Whalers football team.
*There are no vampires in Barrow, Alaska.
–…probably. But, polar bears do roam this city, and are one of the few animals known to actively hunt and eat humans.
Anyone live there currently or have been there? Stories to share?
Just something new I’m trying for the forums. Let me know what you think of it. And share your own TIL
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RESIDUAL
Why Barrow?
@Kidsandliz Why not?
@Kidsandliz Why not? I was just curious what the northernmost US city was last night and happened upon this thought it was interesting. I should mention often I get lost in the rabbit hole of Wikipedia.
@Targaryen OK. Was just curious why this random city without also adding “I am traveling there” or “I just won a vacation there in the middle of winter” . Just remember about 1/3 of wikipedia pages have wrong information on them though…
@Kidsandliz an Alaska trip someday would be pretty awesome. Sure but it’s hard to stop once you start clicking links.
@Targaryen Yes it would. I had an opportunity to ride the pipeline road on bike with a friend, except that invite came when I ran into him in Canada (my sister, myself and a roommate were in BC backpacking in one of the parks at the time) and the thought of 3 or so days home on a bus to get my bike and 7 or so days on a bus (had a bus pass) back to meet him in Alaska was more than I could stand. I have sort of always regretted I didn’t just buy a bike and the additional clothes I’d need and do it.
@Kidsandliz @Targaryen If you really want to get lost, go on Google Earth and see these places.
Btw, I enjoy this. Thanks!
There is a town called Deadhorse that is connected, though. To get there you have to go from Fairbanks up the James Dalton Highway: 400+ miles of muddy gravel, patchy pavement, steep slopes, and fairly frequent rain and fog. Watch out for Oh Shit Corner.
@lljk Made a note. Did you live there?
@lljk @Targaryen
@lljk When I was in Fairbanks I didn’t have time to drive the Dalton.
One day I’m going to drive north of the Arctic Circle, but I’m going to do it on the Dempster instead of the Dalton.
As far as I can tell the Dalton is an access road for the pipeline and a route for trucks. The Dempster is for access to Inuvik and other towns, but I don’t think there’s as much industrial traffic. But I could be wrong.
Also I haven’t been to the NWT.
@Targaryen Nah. I just think the Alaskan wilderness is pretty and I’ve seen some travel logs from people with rugged cars and motorcycles who have gone up that highway.
You should do one on Chicken, Alaska next time. I would love to visit there once just to say I have.
/image chicken alaska
@tnhillbillygal If I go to Alaska in the future this is the kind of stuff I like to see as well.
@Targaryen @tnhillbillygal Chicken is exactly what you see in that picture, so I wouldn’t make it a destination.
It is, however, along with way if you are going to drive the Top of the World Highway to Dawson City, Yukon Territory, so you may as well stop.
This is more or less unrelated to Barrow, AK, but I sometimes get lost in google earth, and lose hours randomly looking at places I might someday go, or perhaps hope to go, or many where I will likely never go…
Pity we only get one chance at this life thing, eh?
@shahnm You’ve touched on one of my biggest peeves as a person. The world of so large, and full of so much interesting stuff to see. It’s a shame most of us mostly have a short span (20-30s) being able to travel freely before other considerations in life become more important. On top of that add the fact that you never realize this until years later thinking “man, if only I’d done more during that time.” Like @Kidsandliz had said as well.
@shahnm @Targaryen Not only that but once you are older (or old depending on your point of view or others’ point of view) you sometimes can’t do what you wanted to do because of physical or financial limitations (although financial limitations can hit at any point in life). I, for example, when I was younger had no money to travel so I got jobs overseas so that I could go to countries. Of course like any other working stiff I only had weekends off and that limited my travel a bit.
@shahnm I haven’t played it in a few years, but GeoGuessr can be pretty cool. It drops you in street view in a random place on the planet. You can go anywhere street view will let you go from that point, but you have to try to guess where you are.
I would follow suit and post something I learned today, but I didn’t learn anything new today…
@jst1ofknd Hit up Wikipedia start somewhere interesting and go from there. That’s usually how I do it. Alternatively, think of something you have to do today… and then procrastinate on the internet.
That was so interesting. Now I want to visit!
Haven’t been to Barrow, but have been to Prudhoe Bay, which is close by. What most people arriving at Alaska’s north coast might find strange is that there are no trees. None. Also, 99.9% of the vehicles there are trucks, with the rare van. No cars.
Had the opportunity to walk out on the frozen Arctic Ocean which was pretty surreal.
I was at a party in Iowa City 15 or so years ago and met a couple that had lived in Alaska. He still lived in Fairbanks and she was a law student at Iowa. Fast forward 5 years and I met her again at a party in Kansas City and found out that the state of Alaska had paid for her to finish law school on the condition that she be an assistant DA in Alaska. Where did they put her? Barrow. I had never heard of it. Several of the factoids listed above, she talked about. Except the vampires.
@JnKL I loved Northern Exposure.
I’ve been watching the barrow webcam for about 9 yrs or so. It’s a tab regularly open on my laptop. I noticed that they’ve quite recently gone back to using Utqiagvik as the name there rather than Barrow. It’s an interesting place. At Citidata forums I used to hang out in the Alaska forum and there are quite a few from Barrow there. One guy has a website where he’s uploaded tons of pics.
Now do one on the south pole. That one is really interesting. Barrow never really goes totally dark during the winter, but at the south pole, it does and it has a unique, spiraling sunset. Were I younger, I would do everything in my power to do a winterover at the S pole. I find it fascinating.
Some years ago I had a contractor do some drywall work for me. He had just returned from a gig building government-subsidized housing in Barrow and he had many interesting stories. The one that stuck with me was of the young native guy who delivered water to the town. He never saw him wear anything but blue jeans and a T-shirt, regardless of the weather. He had pictures of the guy standing by his truck in the ice and snow at -20F.
@macromeh Yeah… they get acclimated. To a point, lol. There are a lot of interesting stories from that town. And characters.
I grew up in Barrow (Barrow Whalers Class of 1983, baby). I do not recommend it. For anything. Also, as depicted in the documentary film “30 Days of Night,” it’s filthy with vampires.
@sandanjudoka Interesting, so who else would/could you play as a football team? How many players? What did you guys as teens go and do for fun? Just curious.
@Targaryen The football program is relatively recent, begun by a school superintendent from Wyoming who happened to have a freshman son who wanted to play. It’s an insane money hole that benefits a very small proportion of the students…y’know, like football programs everywhere. Athletics on the North Slope have always been a nutty proposition. The school district has to fly in teams to play in all sports (football, basketball, cross country, wrestling, volleyball) and foot the bill to boot. For away games, teams fly out to Fairbanks, Anchorage, Bethel, Nome, Kotzebue…“major” hubs with jet service. Since I grew up there in the 80s, and we had JUST gotten cable TV, there was a lot of sitting around and watching that new luxury. Personally, I played D&D, listened to music, and got as involved in school stuff as possible. We did some outdoor stuff (snowmobiles are a big one) but you have to dress like an astronaut and still be willing to be numbingly cold.
@sandanjudoka @Targaryen
/image dress like an astronaut
@Targaryen @therealjrn A Barrow winter would cut through that jacket like adamantium claws through a lemon meringue pie.
@sandanjudoka Do you know Floyd Davidson?
@lseeber I don’t think so, no.
@sandanjudoka @Targaryen @therealjrn
What do locals use for cold-weather foot gear? Are true native mukluks as warm & comfortable as I’ve heard?
@compunaut @Targaryen @therealjrn The very best footgear for Arctic work is pretty universally considered to be the old military bunny boots. They don’t make them anymore, but there are a bunch still in inventory out there, in anticipation of the big 80’s Soviet war that (thankfully) never came. As for mukluks (not an Inupiaq word, by the way), the weakness there is the skin bottom. While sealskin or caribou skin can be cured to be highly water resistant, it’s not nearly as insulating as man-made materials. However…nothing is as warm as fur, especially around the face. Ah, the wolf and wolverine ruff on my parka from my teen years was sublime.
@sandanjudoka @Targaryen @therealjrn I thought they were called ‘mickey’ boots
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
/image mickey boots
@compunaut @sandanjudoka @Targaryen Mickey boots look cold–they have a big hole where your tootsies go.
@compunaut @Targaryen @therealjrn The Arctic version is white, so the Mickey resemblance isn’t as close as it is to the big ol’ feet of a snowshoe hare.
For anyone interested, an old site where a fella from Barrow put a lot of his photographs and stuff about Barrow up. Some neat pics. (I don’t believe he is a vampire although some might have other names for him. He seems to be a love him or hate him sorta guy)
Barrow, AK
Today I learned TIL is an acronym for: Today I Learned.
@aetris That’s what I guessed it meant but nice to have it clarified, thanks!
I used to work with someone who had lived in Barrow for a couple of years. He was glad he didn’t live there any more.