Barrow, Alaska - History

History

In the Inupiaq language the location of Barrow is called Ukpeagvik, which means "the place where we hunt Snowy Owls".

Archaeological sites in the area indicate the Inupiat lived around Barrow as far back as AD 500. Some remains of 16 dwelling mounds from the Birnirk culture of about AD 800 are still in evidence today on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. Their position on a slight rise above the high water mark places them in danger of being lost to erosion within a short time.

Dr. Bill Streever, who chairs the North Slope Science Initiative's Science Technical Advisory Panel, writes in his 2009 book Cold: Adventures in the World’s Frozen Places:

Barrow, like most communities in Alaska, looks temporary, like a pioneer settlement. It is not. Barrow is among the oldest permanent settlements in the United States. Hundreds of years before the European Arctic explorers showed up, starving and freezing and succumbing to hardship, Barrow was more or less where it is now, a natural hunting place at the base of a peninsula that pokes out into the Beaufort Sea. ... Yankee whalers sailed here, learning about the bowhead whale from Inupiat hunters ... Later, the military came, setting up a radar station, and in 1947 a science center was founded at Barrow.

Royal Navy officers were in the area to explore and map the Arctic coastline of North America. The United States Army established a meteorological and magnetic research station at Barrow in 1881, and the Cape Smythe Whaling and Trading Station was established in 1893.

In 1888 a Presbyterian church was built at Barrow, and in 1901 a United States Post Office was opened.

In 1935 the famous humorist Will Rogers and pilot Wiley Post made an unplanned stop at Walakpa Bay 15 mi (24 km) south of Barrow while en route to Barrow. As they took off again their plane stalled and plunged into a river, killing them both. There are now two memorials at the location, now called the Rogers-Post Site. There is another memorial located in Barrow, where the airport has been renamed the Wiley Post–Will Rogers Memorial Airport.

Barrow was incorporated as a 1st Class City in 1958.

Residents of the North Slope cast the lone vote in opposition to passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which passed in December 1971. In 1972, the North Slope Borough was established. The borough, with millions of dollars in new revenues, created sanitation, water and electrical utilities, roads, fire departments, and health and educational services in Barrow and the villages of the North Slope.

In 1986, the North Slope Borough created the North Slope Higher Education Center, which later became Ilisagvik College, which is now an accredited two-year college dedicated to providing an education based on the Inupiat culture and the needs of the North Slope Borough.

The Tuzzy Consortium Library, in the Inupiat Heritage Center, serves the communities of the North Slope Borough and functions as the academic library for Ilisagvik College. The library was named after Evelyn Tuzroyluk Higbee.

Barrow, like many communities in Alaska, has enacted a "damp" law prohibiting the sale of alcoholic beverages, but allows for import, possession and consumption.

In 1988, Barrow became the center of a worldwide media attention when three California Gray Whales became trapped in the ice offshore. After a two week rescue effort (Operation Breakthrough), two of the whales were ultimately freed by a Soviet icebreaker. Journalist Tom Rose details the rescue, and the media frenzy which accompanied it, in his 1989 book Freeing The Whales. The movie Big Miracle is based on the rescue and aired in February 2012.