This is a Wendover Productions video in collaboration
with RealLifeLore, and made possible by Squarespace. Build your website for 10% off by going to
squarespace.com/wendover. 3,500 miles from Washington, D.C., 3,000 miles
north of Los Angeles, 750 miles north of Anchorage, where the ground never melts, where the snow falls
mid-summer, where no plants taller than a few inches grow, where the sun sets for months
in the winter and stays up for months in the summer, lies America’s northernmost town—Barrow,
Alaska. Combing through maps, Barrow has always intrigued
me and I had two questions—why does it exist and what is it like?—so I visited it. Now, asking why Barrow exists might seem like
an absurd question. You could ask the same question for Fernley,
Nevada or Grafton, Vermont or any other town but Barrow is a bit unique. It’s not a small town, at least by Arctic
standards. Just as many people live in Barrow as in the
entire rest of Northern Alaska. There is only one town on earth larger than
and further north than Barrow (Tiksi, Russia) Considering Barrow is one of the northernmost
communities in the world, the weather is far from typical. This clip from 1:45 AM on May 30th shows just
how unique it is. Just hours before, it was 68 degrees in Los
Angeles, 70 in Denver, 93 in D.C., and 96 in Dallas while Americans across the country
were having their Memorial Day barbecues and here in Barrow, the sun still lit up the landscape
and it billowed snow just before two in the morning. Snowy weather isn’t in the least bit unique
in the weeks leading up to summer and even during June, July, and August, the ground
regularly gets a light dusting. You can tell it’s the Arctic. For 65 days in the summer, the sun never sets,
then for 65 again in the winter it never rises. On the ground, Barrow is… desolate. It’s bounded on one side by the flat Arctic
tundra and the other by the often frozen Arctic Ocean. There’s
little emphasis on aesthetics within the town itself but there are few sights as beautiful
as the sea-ice just off of the beach. There’s not a single paved road in Barrow
as they would be destroyed each year by the shifting land as it freezes and melts. In fact, there aren’t even roads connecting
Barrow to the outside world—they end just a couple miles out of town. That does mean,
though, that for all but a few months of the year there’s only one way in or out—the
airplane. Barrow’s Airport is quite literally the
lifeline of the community. The entire town relies on planes going in
and out to get food in and people out. Somewhat surprisingly, multiple jet planes
fly into Barrow each day from Anchorage. You could start your day in this small town
above the Arctic Circle and finish in New York. With no roads or port, with little exception,
every ounce of food flies into Barrow. There’s even a special type of aircraft
built almost exclusively to serve small towns like Barrow—the 737-combi. These planes have their front half built like
cargo planes and their back half built like passenger planes to serve communities that
are small enough that they can’t demand full-size cargo airplanes and still need a
way to bring passengers in and out. Increasingly nowadays, however, Barrow can
be supplied by boat. For just a few months of the year, the ice
breaks up enough that a barge can come to shore and bring all the goods to Barrow that
won’t fit in a plane. That means that if you need a car or a truck
or building materials, you have one shot a year to order it. As the mayor says: [Mayor] "Cost of living is
very expensive here because a lot of the produce, products are very expensive, because they’re
flown in. Air freight is very expensive.” Heavy things are incredibly expensive—$15
for this hand sanitizer and $30 for this stain remover. Products that need refrigeration in transport,
such as frozen pizza, are also unnaturally expensive—$17 for this one. Bulky things demand a premium too—$20 for
some toilet paper and $22 for diapers. The cost of living above the Arctic Circle
in Barrow is just extremely high due to its location. In visiting such a foreign place, you do sometimes
have to remind yourself that you’re still in the same country as Miami, Minneapolis,
or Milwaukee. It’s a reminder of just how vast the United
States is. Barrow still has a US Post Office, a Wells
Fargo bank, those American-style signs—it’s still an American city even if it’s closer
to Tokyo and St. Petersburg than it is to D.C. So why do people live in Barrow? Why have 5,000 people chosen to live their
lives as close to the North Pole as to their own state capital? Well, for many residents, it’s been their
home for thousands of years. Barrow is the cultural center of the Iñupiat
tribe—one of the dozens of native Alaskan tribes. There’s evidence that the Iñupiat people
have lived in the same spot as Barrow for more than 1,500 years making it one of the
oldest permanently inhabited settlements in North America. That’s why over 60% of the residents of
the city are Alaskan Native—mostly from the Iñupiat tribe. The answer to why the other 40% is there,
as it often is, is oil. Barrow is the administrative center of the
North Slope borough—the equivalent of a county or region. The area is larger than the entire United
Kingdom, yet less than 10,000 people live within its borders. Barrow itself doesn’t have a significant
amount of oil, but nearby Prudhoe Bay has the single largest oil deposit in North America. [Mayor] “The larger companies that have leases out on the Prudhoe Bay oil fields hire people
to fill in positions that are needed within their services.” Some people go from Barrow to Prudhoe Bay
to work the drills, but there’s also good work within Barrow as it serves as the home
of the borough’s government. The primary employers in the area are the
city, borough, state, and federal government. And, in fact, you can make some decent money
in Barrow. The median household income is over $80,000
compared the US’ average of about $55,000. Of course, when spending
$500 a week on groceries is normal, this number seems slightly less impressive, but the city
does have real industry. That, of course, is a big reason why 5,000
people live here. It’s a completely self-sustaining city. It’s expensive, hugely expensive, to live
here but those who do make that choice for a reason. Among American cities, Barrow sits center
stage watching the world warm. -“I think we live through climate change
on a daily basis. Climate change and global climate change has
its effects on the North Slope and some see different effects over time as it occurs depending
on the season. Mostly, you can see it in the fall and
spring seasons in terms of the effects of climate change—the thawing, the warmer temperatures,
movements of and migrations of animals occurring a little bit more earlier than what they were
in the past. These are changes we’re contending with
on a daily basis in the Arctic.” Day by day, the oil supplies in the North Slope
Borough run out and the world is turning to renewable energy. The area has a looming threat of its biggest
industry moving out. Many other places in a similar situation such
as the UAE or Oman or Norway have attempted to fill the gap that oil will leave by growing
the tourism industry. But, as Mayor Brower says, “It’s very seasonal. It's only from the spring to the fall—the
majority of the tourist season that occurs. There’s some interest in developing tourist
entrepreneurship into the communities but the infrastructure still lacking—a lack
of hotels, a lack of transportation needs or tourism business items that are needed
to conduct tourism, they’re not quite developed in a lot of our villages.” Visiting Barrow is an adventure, not a vacation,
and nobody should come expecting a McDonald's, and Segway tours, and super-fast Wi-Fi. The beach of America’s northernmost town
presents one of the rarest views in the world—thousands of miles of civilization-free ice, water,
and nothingness. Alaska’s license plates may say that the
state itself is America’s last frontier, but nowhere feels closer to the end of the
Earth than Barrow, Alaska. This video was made possible by Squarespace. Squarespace is the number-one way to build
your website. They power my Wendover Productions website
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going to squarespace.com/wendover. This project where I travelled literally to
the top of the world to film a video would never have been possible without Squarespace’s
support so I do hope you go at least check them out over at squarespace.com/wendover. I travelled to Barrow with the guys behind
two channels—Real Life Lore and Second Thought. You can find their videos on the town here. Please also be sure to check out my podcast
Showmakers and subscribe to this channel to get all future videos right when they come
out. Thanks again for watching and I’ll see you
in two weeks for another Wendover Productions video.
Hey thanks for posting!
This is my video and I really did travel to Barrow, Alaska so feel free to ask any questions you may have about the topic and I'll do my best to answer.
I spent three weeks working in Barrow, it was a really cool experience, expect not seeing the dark for three whole weeks! It was really cold (I was there in April of 2016, -10 with 20-40mph winds when I arrived). A local told me there is a pretty girl behind every tree..(there are no trees). It is weird to fly from Anchorage to barrow, hundreds and hundreds of miles of just snow/mountains and flat lands, nothingness. You have to taxi everywhere because there are no car rentals, I ate some MukTuk (whale), and got to watch some cool videos of this guy and his family hunting for whales. The artwork at the Top of the world hotel is amazing, they carve cool art into Ivory. natural gas is really cheap up there, but their energy bills can run $500/mo. They even have year round outside dogs! I thought that was crazy, but they have Huskies who are used to it. Everywhere you go, you see cars plugged into the walls when parked. The wifi up there is HORRIBLE, I paid $15/day for 1mb internet at the hotel, otherwise was almost as slow as 56k. I met a lot of really cool people up there, and look forward to one day returning for my next project! Another fun fact mentioned in the video, that the ice prevents ships from going to Barrow for part of the year, the guy I was working with was trying to get a bunch of stuff shipped during the timeframe that allows shipment, the only way in and out is by airplane for part of the year!
edit: image album from my trip
It's all fine and dandy until you get raided by an army of vampires for 65 days.
I dont get it.
First half of the video says that each and every single item of food needs to get in through airplane.
Second half of the video says its completely self-sustaining city.
How did the town recover from that vampire invasion a few years ago?
Sounds like a good place to get an Amazon prime subscription and order in the groceries!
It is no longer called Barrow, FYI. It was recently renamed Utqiaġvik, a native name.
Question not quite about the video but one that arises from it. Are all the natives as tan as the mayor?
What's the dating life is like there?