Point Barrow Nuvuk (Inupiaq) | |
|---|---|
.jpg) | |
  Point Barrow Location within the state of Alaska | |
| Coordinates:71°23′20″N156°28′45″W / 71.38889°N 156.47917°W /71.38889; -156.47917 | |
| Country | United States |
| State | Alaska |
| Borough | North Slope |
| Time zone | UTC-9 (AKST) |
| • Summer (DST) | UTC-8 (AKDT) |
Point Barrow orNuvuk is a headland on theArctic coast in theU.S. state ofAlaska, 9 miles (14 km) northeast ofUtqiagvik (formerly Barrow). It is thenorthernmost point of all the territory of the United States, at71°23′20″N156°28′45″W / 71.38889°N 156.47917°W /71.38889; -156.47917 (Point Barrow), 1,122nautical miles (1,291 mi; 2,078 km) south of theNorth Pole. (Thenorthernmost point on the North American mainland,Murchison Promontory in Canada, is 40 miles (64 km) farther north.)
Point Barrow is an important geographical landmark, marking the limit between two marginal seas of theArctic Ocean, theChukchi Sea to the west and theBeaufort Sea to the east.[1]
Archaeological evidence indicates that Point Barrow was occupied by the ancestors of theIñupiat for almost 1,000 years prior to the arrival of the first Europeans. Occupation continued into the 1940s. The headland is an important archaeological site, yielding burials and artifacts associated with theThule culture, includinguluit andbola. The waters off Point Barrow are on thebowhead whale migration route and it is surmised, that the site was chosen to make hunting easier.[2] There are alsoburial mounds in the area, at the nearbyBirnirk site, associated with the earlierBirnirk culture, a pre-Thule culture first identified in 1912 byVilhjalmur Stefansson while excavating in the area.[3]: 72 The settlement was calledNuvuk, and it was near the "migration path of bowhead whales which would become the cultural and nutritional centre of Nuvuk life."[2]
Point Barrow was named in 1826 by English explorerFrederick William Beechey forSir John Barrow, a statesman and geographer of theBritish Admiralty.[citation needed] The water around it is normally[when?] ice-free for two or three months a year, but this was not the experience of the early explorers. Beechey could not reach it by ship and had to send a ship's boat ahead.
In 1826,John Franklin tried to reach it from the east, but was blocked by ice.
In 1837,Thomas Simpson walked 50 miles west to Point Barrow after his boats were stopped by ice.
In 1849,William Pullen rounded it in two whale boats after sending two larger boats back west because of the ice.
Point Barrow has been a jumping-off point for manyArctic expeditions, including the 1926 WilkinsDetroit Arctic Expedition and the April 15, 1928,Eielson–Wilkins flight across the Arctic Ocean toSpitsbergen.
On August 15, 1935, an airplane crash killed aviatorWiley Post and his passenger, the entertainerWill Rogers, at theRogers–Post Site, 33 km (20.5 mi) southwest of Point Barrow.
In 1946,William C. Trimble of the State Department discussed an alternate offer of land in Point Barrow, as part of a $100 million in gold bullion offer toDenmark topurchase Greenland.[4][5] Had the Alaska trade occurred, from 1967 Denmark would have benefited fromPrudhoe Bay Oil Field, the richest petroleum discovery in American history.[6]
In 1988,gray whales were trapped in the ice at Point Barrow, which attracted attention from the public worldwide. The Iñupiat do not hunt gray whales and joined in rescue operationOperation Breakthrough, which also involved Soviet icebreakers.[7]
| Census | Pop. | Note | %± |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1880 | 200 | — | |
| 1890 | 152 | −24.0% | |
| 1910 | 127 | — | |
| 1920 | 91 | −28.3% | |
| 1930 | 82 | −9.9% | |
| 1940 | 28 | −65.9% | |
| U.S. Decennial Census[8] | |||
Point Barrow first appeared in the 1880 U.S. census as the unincorporated Inuit village of "Kokmullit" (AKA Nuwuk).[9] All 200 residents were Inuit.[10] In 1890, it returned as Point Barrow, which also included the Refuge & Whaling Station and native settlements of Nuwuk, Ongovehenok and winter village on "Kugaru" (Inaru) River. It reported 152 residents, of which 143 were Native American, eight were "other race" and one was white.[11] It did not report in 1900, but appeared again from 1910-1940. It has not reported separately since.
Barrow, a city of 5,000, changed its name toUtqiagvik, its Inupiaq name, on December 1, 2016.[12]
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
