- Joined
- 16 Aug 08
- Moves
- 35812
Here's an article from The Guardian
"This is a remarkable town in an extraordinary location on the remote Arctic coast of north Alaska, 300 miles inside the Arctic circle and only 1,100 miles from the North Pole. There are no roads leading to Barrow: breaks in the pack ice allow an approach by water for a few weeks in the summer, when the annual supply barge arrives carrying cars, buses, fire trucks, building materials and grocery supplies. Travel to and from here is by air: a dramatic overview of the vast, treeless tundra landscape dotted by ice-wedge polygons. The sun sets here for the last time each year in early May and, until the beginning of August, it traces a circular path across the sky, dipping down towards the horizon late at night but never disappearing. The 24 hours of daylight, and the higher temperatures, transform the frozen tundra into a land of ponds that never drain away, the permafrost acting as a seal. On scattered tussocks of drier ground, grasses and flowers crowd together, looking for a place to grow. The flowering season is short, as are the flowers, hugging the ground for protection against bitter Arctic winds: colourful rock jasmine, snow buttercup, arctic poppy, and the tiny, fragrant arctic forget-me-not. The slim arctic fox looses its white winter fur for a darker coat, and the birds arrive: sandpipers, phalaropes, ducks, ptarmigans, plovers, loons and skuas are all visitors for the brief breeding season. But it's the big snowy owl that attracts the attention, smothered from head to toe in pure white plumage, extra pads on the soles of its feet. These majestic birds gave Barrow its original Inupiaq name: ukpiaqvic, or "the place where people hunt the snowy owl".
