Utqiagvik << ut kay AH vihk >> (pop. 4,927), in Alaska, is the northernmost community in the United States. It lies about 320 miles (515 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle on the Chukchi Sea in the Arctic Ocean. Utqiagvik is just south of Point Barrow, Alaska’s northernmost point, on the state’s North Slope. People of native Alaskan descent make up the majority of Utqiagvik’s population. In 2016, the town’s residents voted to change the town name from Barrow to Utqiagvik, its original Iñupiat name.
Utqiagvik is northern Alaska’s transportation, supply, and administration hub. It is the administrative center for the North Slope Borough, a division of local government. The borough is the area’s leading employer by far. Nearby oil field operations provide jobs and tax revenues for the community. Utqiagvik is accessible in summer by oceangoing ships and the year around by regularly scheduled air traffic. No roads link Utqiagvik to other communities. Transportation costs make such ordinary supplies as food and fuel expensive to the town’s residents.
Temperatures in Utqiagvik average about 40 °F (4 °C) in summer and –12 °F (–24 °C) in winter. Subfreezing temperatures, snow, and winds up to 60 miles (97 kilometers) per hour can occur any month of the year. The sun does not set in Utqiagvik from about May 10 to August 2 each year. It does not rise between November 18 and January 22. During the winter, the northern lights, or aurora borealis, are often visible. The northern lights are a natural display of light in the sky—appearing chiefly as arcs, clouds, and streaks—that can be seen with the unaided eye at night. Tourism, largely based on the northern lights in winter and midnight sun in summer, has increased in the area since the late 1900’s.
Archaeologists have found evidence of human activity in the area as early as A.D. 500. Iñupiat, a North Alaska Inuit people, called the area’s current location Utqiagvik (high place for viewing) because of a high bluff overlooking the sea. The name may also refer to a location where wild roots could be collected for food in the summer. A British mapping expedition visited the area in 1826. The expedition members named nearby Point Barrow for Sir John Barrow, the second secretary of the British Admiralty and a sponsor of the expedition. The village was known primarily by various Iñupiat names until 1901, when the U.S. Post Office Department made the name Barrow official. In 2016, the town voted to change its name to Utqiagvik.
The U.S. Army established a research station in the area in 1881. A whaling station was built in 1893. The U.S. Navy set up a petroleum reserve nearby during the 1920’s. The 1968 discovery of oil reserves at Prudhoe Bay, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) to the east, and the subsequent construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline contributed to the region’s development. The town was incorporated under the name Barrow in 1958. The North Slope Borough was established in 1972.
Today, Iñupiat residents still practice the traditional hunting of such marine mammals as seals, walruses, and whales. These hunting traditions, plus the food and other products such animals provide, are important to the culture of the local Iñupiat. Animals and hunters depend on the formation of sea ice during the colder seasons. Climate change caused by global warming, an increase in the average temperature of Earth’s surface, has threatened Iñupiat traditions by making the formation of sea ice less reliable.
