Page 228 - (DK Eyewitness) Travel Guide 2017 - Alaska

226  ALASK A AREA B Y AREA

5 Barrow Post and Rogers left Seattle
for Alaska. Near Barrow they
The northernmost town in the US and seat of the vast North encountered bad weather and
Slope Borough, Barrow sits on the tundra beside the Beaufort made an emergency land ing.
Sea. Its Inupiat name, Utqiagvik, means “the place to hunt However, soon after they took off
snowy owls.” Offshore ice huddles close to the shore almost all again, the engine failed and the
plane plunged into a lagoon,
year round, retreating for just a few weeks in July and August. killing both men. Visitors can hire
This isolated community experiences the mid night sun for ATVs or hike to the crash site
84 days in the summer; conversely, the sun does not rise at 15 miles (24 km) to the south.
all for the same period in the win ter. At 300 miles (480 km)
north of the Arctic Circle, many people of this Inupiat outpost E Inupiat Heritage Center
5421 North Star St. Tel 852­0422.
continue to live on sub sistence fishing and hunting, as they Open 8:30am–5pm Mon–Fri.
have always done. Closed public holidays. & 8 7
= ∑ nps.gov/inup
Affiliated with the US National
Park Service, the Inupiat
Heritage Center was set up in
recognition of Inuit contribution
to whaling. For hundreds of
years, the Inuit hunted whales
from their umiaks, and in the
19th and 20th centuries, crewed
on whal ing ships and provided
shelter for shipwrecked sailors.
In addition to the whaling
Whalers towing a whale out of the sea, Barrow connection, the center cele­
brates Inupiat culture, display­
P Ukkuqsi Archeological excavations. This grassy bluff ing diverse facets of local life,
Site makes a pleasant place to stroll such as a whale baleen sled,
Stevenson St. and enjoy the views out over spirit masks, and ivory imple­
Along the coast at the western the Arctic Ocean. ments. A large performance
end of town, a series of sod area hosts singing, drumming,
ruins and remnants of archeo­ P Will Rogers and Wiley Post and dance performances.
logical digs sit on the bluffs Monument
overlooking a lonely stretch of Akhovak & Momegana Sts. 7 P Whalebone Arch
beach. While contact between This memorial honors the Stevenson St.
Europeans and indige nous renowned pilot Wiley Post and This lonely spot at Browerville
peoples began around 1825, his friend, Cherokee humorist Will on the Arctic Ocean coast is
trade was not common until Rogers. Post, famous for setting the his toric site from where
the 1870s. For that reason, the 1920s dis tance records in his genera tions of Inuit whalers
types of items unearthed – ivory Lockheed Vega, decided to have set out across the icy seas
points, weapons, tools, and survey an air route from California in hopes of killing a whale to
artwork – are still familiar to the to Russia in 1935. Funded by feed the community through
older residents of the town, interested airlines, he built a low­ the winter. An arch made from
who usually participate in the wing monoplane. In July 1935, the massive jawbone of a

Prominent whalebone arch at Browerville on the Arctic Ocean coast
For hotels and restaurants in this area see p245 and p255

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