Point Barrow#History

Point Barrow is an important geographical landmark, marking the limit between two marginal seas of the Arctic Ocean, the Chukchi Sea to the west and the Beaufort Sea to the east.{{Cite web| title=The Northernmost Points In The United States| url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/which-are-the-northernmost-points-in-the-united-states.html| website=worldatlas.com| date=25 April 2017| access-date=October 10, 2019}}

File:Ukpeagvik mounds.jpg

File:Alaska - Point Barrow - NARA - 23942255.jpg

Archaeological evidence indicates that Point Barrow was occupied by the ancestors of the Iñupiat 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 the Thule culture, including uluit and bola. The waters off Point Barrow are on the bowhead whale migration route and it is surmised, that the site was chosen to make hunting easier.{{cite news|first=Richard|last=Black|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6902858.stm|title=Bodies point to Alaska's past|work=BBC|date=December 31, 2007|access-date=November 11, 2017}} There are also burial mounds in the area, at the nearby Birnirk site, associated with the earlier Birnirk culture, a pre-Thule culture first identified in 1912 by Vilhjalmur Stefansson while excavating in the area.{{cite book|year=1998|pages=[https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofpre0000unse/page/941 941]|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_0u2y_SVnmoC&q=Birnirk+culture+Point+Barrow&pg=PA72|title=Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: an Encyclopedia|editor-first1=Guy E.|editor-last1=Gibbons|editor-first2=Kenneth M.|editor-last2=Ames|publisher=Taylor & Francis|chapter=Birnick culture|first=Douglas D.|last=Anderson|isbn=9780815307259|url=https://archive.org/details/archaeologyofpre0000unse/page/941}}{{rp|72}} The settlement was called Nuvuk, and it was near the "migration path of bowhead whales which would become the cultural and nutritional centre of Nuvuk life."

Point Barrow was named in 1826 by English explorer Frederick William Beechey for Sir John Barrow, a statesman and geographer of the British Admiralty.{{cn|date=March 2025|reason=Utqiagvik#Name says 1825}} The water around it is normally{{when|date=February 2023}} 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 many Arctic expeditions, including the 1926 Wilkins Detroit Arctic Expedition and the April 15, 1928, Eielson–Wilkins flight across the Arctic Ocean to Spitsbergen.

File:Wilkins arctic expedition 1926.jpg

On August 15, 1935, an airplane crash killed aviator Wiley Post and his passenger, the entertainer Will Rogers, at the Rogers–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 to Denmark to purchase Greenland.{{cite book |title=Cold War Science and the Transatlantic Circulation of Knowledge |series=History of Modern Science |editor1-first=Jeroen |editor1-last=van Dongen |publisher=Brill |year=2015 |isbn=978-90-04-26422-9 |chapter=Small State versus Superpower |author1-first=Matthias |author1-last=Heymann |author2-first=Henry |author2-last=Nielsen |author3-first=Kristen Hvidtfelt |author3-last=Nielsen |author4-first=Henrik |author4-last=Knudsen | p=251}}{{cite news |last1=Oakley |first1=Don |title=Historian Claims U.S. Tried to Buy Greenland |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/15307813/ |access-date=August 16, 2019 |work=Hattiesburg American | agency=Associated Press | date=August 31, 1977 |via=newspapers.com}}{{subscription required}} Had the Alaska trade occurred, from 1967 Denmark would have benefited from Prudhoe Bay Oil Field, the richest petroleum discovery in American history.{{cite news |last1=Nelson |first1=W. Dale |title=Wanna Buy Greenland? The United States Once Did |url=https://www.apnews.com/9d4a8021c3650800fdf6dd5903f68972 |access-date=August 16, 2019 |work=Associated Press | date=May 2, 1991}}

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 operation Operation Breakthrough, which also involved Soviet icebreakers.{{cite news|url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4DF153DF93BA25753C1A96E948260|title=Unlikely Allies Rush to Free 3 Whales|date=1988-10-18|work=New York Times|access-date=2008-06-12|first=Richard|last=Mauer}}

{{clear}}

{{wide image|Barrow point panorama.jpg|1600px|alt=center|Nuvuk (Point Barrow)}}

{{US Census population

|1880= 200

|1890= 152

|1910= 127

|1920= 91

|1930= 82

|1940= 28

|align-fn=center

|footnote=U.S. Decennial Census{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/www/decennial.html|title=U.S. Decennial Census|publisher=Census.gov|access-date=June 6, 2013}}

}}

Point Barrow first appeared in the 1880 U.S. census as the unincorporated Inuit village of "Kokmullit" (AKA Nuwuk).{{Cite web | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Rr9RAQAAMAAJ&q=kokmullit&pg=PA49 | title=Geological Survey Professional Paper| year=1949}} All 200 residents were Inuit.{{cite web |title=Statistics of the Population of Alaska |url=https://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1880a_v1-17.pdf |website=United States Census Bureau |date=1880}} 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.{{cite web |title=Report on Population and Resources of Alaska at the Eleventh Census: 1890 |url=http://www2.census.gov/prod2/decennial/documents/1890a_v8-01.pdf |website=United States Census Bureau |publisher=Government Printing Office}} 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 to Utqiagvik, its Inupiaq name, on December 1, 2016.{{Cite news |first=Alex |last=DeMarba |date=November 8, 2016 |title=Tributes pour into Alaska for North Slope leader Edward Itta |language=en |url=https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/rural-alaska/2016/11/07/tributes-pour-into-alaska-for-north-slope-leader-edward-itta/ |access-date=2023-02-05}}

{{Commons category|Point Barrow}}

• Alaska North Slope
• Iḷisaġvik College
• Umiak

{{Reflist}}

• [https://web.archive.org/web/20030904164752/http://astronautix.com/sites/poiarrow.htm Rocket launches at Point Barrow]
• [https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/1155 The papers of Henry W. Greist on Point Barrow] at Dartmouth College Library

{{Authority control}}

Barrow, Point

Category:Landforms of North Slope Borough, Alaska