America's northernmost city — polar bears, midnight sun, and 65 days of darkness
Utqiaġvik (formerly Barrow) is the northernmost city in the United States, sitting 530km above the Arctic Circle on Alaska's North Slope. It experiences 65 days of continuous darkness in winter (polar night) and 82 days of midnight sun in summer. The Iñupiaq people have lived here for over 1,500 years; the town retains a strong subsistence culture — whale, seal, walrus, and caribou hunting remain central to local life. Polar bears occasionally wander into town. The NARL (Naval Arctic Research Laboratory) operated here during the Cold War; the legacy includes some of the most important permafr…
The Iñupiaq have inhabited the area around Point Barrow for at least 1,500 years, living in semi-subterranean sod houses and relying on bowhead whale hunting as the cultural and nutritional cornerstone of their society. The first Western contact was by British Captain Frederick Beechey in 1826. The U.S. Navy established a research station in 1947; NARL became one of the world's premier arctic research facilities during the Cold War. The town voted in 2016 to restore its traditional Iñupiaq name, Utqiaġvik ('place where snowy owls are hunted').