The northernmost point of Alaska, in the northwest on the Arctic Ocean. The nearby city of Barrow has research and government facilities. Population: 4,010.
Point Barrow
Dictionary:
Bar·row (băr'ō)  , Point
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The northernmost point of Alaska, in the northwest on the Arctic Ocean. The nearby city of Barrow has research and government facilities. Population: 4,010.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Point Barrow |
Point Barrow, northernmost point of Alaska, on the Arctic Ocean, at lat. 71°23′N and long. 156°30′W. Visited in 1826 by Frederick W. Beechey, a British explorer, and named by him for the British geographer Sir John Barrow, it has since been the object of many expeditions and has figured prominently in arctic aviation. Navigation is open for only two or three months a year. To the southwest is the village of Barrow. Farther south is a monument to Will Rogers and Wiley Post, who lost their lives there in an airplane crash in 1935.
| Wikipedia: Point Barrow |
| Point Barrow Nuvuk |
|
|---|---|
| — Northernmost point of the USA — | |
  Point Barrow
|
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| Coordinates: 71°23′20″N 156°28′45″W / 71.38889°N 156.47917°W | |
| Country |  United States |
| State |  Alaska |
| Borough | North Slope |
| Time zone | Alaska (AKST) (UTC-9) |
| - Summer (DST) | AKDT (UTC-8) |
Point Barrow or Nuvuk is a headland on the Arctic coast in the U.S. state of Alaska, 9 mi (14 km) northeast of Barrow. It is the northernmost point of the United States, at 71°23′20″N 156°28′45″W / 71.38889°N 156.47917°WCoordinates: 71°23′20″N 156°28′45″W / 71.38889°N 156.47917°W. The distance to the North Pole is 1,122 nautical miles (1,291 mi; 2,078 km), or 64 km (40 mi) farther than the distance from Murchison Promontory, Nunavut to the Pole.
Point Barrow is also an important geographical landmark, marking the limit between two marginal seas of the Arctic, the Chukchi Sea on its western side and the Beaufort Sea on the eastern.
Archaeological evidence indicates that Point Barrow was occupied by the ancestors of the Inupiat almost 1,000 years prior to the arrival of the first Europeans. 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 Whales migration route and it is surmised that the site was chosen to make hunting easier.[1] There are also burial mounds in the area, at the nearby Birnirk Site, associated with the earlier Birnirk culture, identifed in 1912 by Vilhjalmur Stefansson while excavating in the area.[2]
It was named by English geographer Frederick William Beechey, in 1825 for Sir John Barrow, a statesman and geographer of the British Admiralty. The water around it is normally ice-free for only two or three months a year.
It has been a jumping-off point for many Arctic expeditions, including the Wilkins-Detroit Arctic Expeditions and the April 15, 1928, Eielson-Wilkins flight across the Arctic Ocean to Spitsbergen.
It is close to Rogers-Post Site, the scene of the airplane crash on August 15, 1935 that killed aviator Wiley Post and his passenger, the entertainer Will Rogers.
Between 1965 and 1972 it was used as a launch site for Nike-Cajun and Nike Apache sounding rockets. It is the site of a Global Atmosphere Watch atmospheric monitoring station.
The term Point Barrow whales refers to whales that were trapped in the ice at Point Barrow in 1988, which attracted attention from the American public.[3]
A horse named Point Barrow took part in the 2008 Grand National but failed to complete the course.
See also
References
- ^ BBC NEWS - Bodies point to Alaska's past
- ^ Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America By Guy E. Gibbon, Kenneth M. Ames
- ^ "Unlikely Allies Rush to Free 3 Whales". New York Times. 1988-10-18. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE4DF153DF93BA25753C1A96E948260. Retrieved 2008-06-12.
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
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 | Beaufort Sea |
| Barrow |
| Frederick William Beechey (English military leader & explorer) |
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 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
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| Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/. Read more |
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| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Point Barrow". Read more |
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Mentioned in
- Beaufort Sea
- Barrow
- Frederick William Beechey (English military leader & explorer)
- Peter Warren Dease (Canadian explorer)
- Wiley Post (American aviator)
- Edmond (city, Oklahoma)
- Birnirk Cultures (in archaeology)
- Sir John Barrow (English geographer & explorer)
- Will Rogers (American writer, pioneer & entertainer)
- Sir George Hubert Wilkins (English explorer)
- aurora borealis (in astronomy)
- Sir John Franklin (English-Canadian explorer)
- International Geophysical Year (American history)
- USNS Point Barrow (T-AKD-1)
