Day 22- Trip to Barrow, AK

What a day and adventure! We flew to Barrow, pop 5000, the most northern point in the US. We left the tree lined streets and lots of green grass for the frozen tundra. We arrived in the rain which made the streets full of mud and puddles. It was in the 30’s with a strong wind off the ocean. Yes it was cold! It was like traveling to another world. Everything is wet, damp, grey and very little color including the houses and buildings. They have no trees so all the wood around is used over and over. Since Alaska has no zoning laws, they can build a new house next to one that is fall down. The natives-Eskimo’s, still fish, hunt and whaling for their meat. Each has an ice cellar down in the permafrost to keep their whale meat and blubber from spoiling. This community is totally self supporting with schools to include college, hospital and a few stores. The community gets royality money from the oil wells. They have their own natural gas wells which heats the town’s homes. The only way to the community is by air. In the winter they can go to village to village by snowmobiles.
We spend time visiting the cultural center where we learned about whaling and hunting. The display shows the process thorough time and how it is changing. We had local artists share their crafts with us as well we had 14 school age children dance for us. We joined a tour that was an interesting bus ride around the villages that make up Barrow. The roads were gravel and full of potholes. Barrow’s only paved road was the airport runway! Pavement does not hold up with all the frost. In fact the houses in Barrow are build on posts off the ground because of the permafrost.
Life is expensive in Barrow. We visited a grocery store and saw milk for $11.85 for a gallon of milk, red delicious apples for $5.85 per pound and Bing cherries for $10.85. It was interesting to see that they had a good variety but they were restocking after the winter. The food is either flown in or comes on a barge when the ocean is open. We did see ice at the most northern tip. According to the tour guide, ice went off the ocean 5 days ago. Yes it was cold with the wind off the ocean.
Did you know that the whale meat is shared with the community? They have 40 whaling teams/crews and they each have 20 members. They hunt whales twice a year in Barrow- Spring and fall.
Did you know that a good size whale will have 18 inches of blubber? A whale will eat several tons of krill a day.
Did you know that they have active polar bear watch in the community? But we did not see one.
The local high school has a football team and they play on blue astro- turf. They have to fly to away games. Last fall they lost in the semi-final playoff game.