On the way to Fairbanks I got the bug to get to the Arctic Circle. It’s “only” a couple of hundred miles north of Fairbanks. And I may never get this close to it again.
One of the ways to get to the Arctic Circle from Fairbanks is the Dalton Highway. It goes north out of Fairbanks, past the Arctic Circle and on to Prudhoe Bay, where the pipeline starts. It’s about a 200 mile drive up the Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle.
From the travel guide information I read, it sounded like the Dalton Highway could be tough to drive. Tough, in the sense that it’s used a lot by trucks barreling to and from Prudhoe Bay. I thought I’d ask at the visitor center to see if that was really the case.
A really helpful guy at the visitor center confirmed what the books say. The road itself, although gravel, isn’t any worse than some of the other roads I’ve been on. However, with the truck traffic, it often means you come back with a cracked windshield. And frequent flat tires are reported. It’s suggested you carry two spares on the Dalton.
I know the windshield belongs to Hertz, but having a windshield repaired or replaced sounded like more hassle than I wanted to deal with. I asked the guy at the visitor center if there were alternatives. He suggested an evening flight to Fort Yukon.
Fort Yukon is a village of a little over 500 people at the confluence of the Yukon, Porcupine, and Beaver rivers. It’s north of the Arctic Circle, and accessible only by air or by occasional supply barge up the Yukon from Fairbanks.
The inhabitants of the village are almost entirely native Alaskan – the Bwich’in tribe of the Athabascan nation. Historically, the Gwich’in were nomadic hunters, who moved in family units following the game. When the first European settlers arrived in the area, around 1850, they started forming villages and added trapping to their culture. They now live in several Alaskan and Canadian villages, mostly above the Arctic Circle. They still rely on a lot of their substance skills. Trapping is still one of the major sources of income for theGiwch’in in Fort Yukon.
The air service that does the evening flights, Warbelow’s Air Services, has regularly scheduled service (daily in most cases), to 18 of these villages in interior Alaska, carrying mail, supplies, and passengers. Several years ago they reached agreement with the Fort Yukon village elders to have an evening flight in the summer to bring a small number of folks to tour their village.
The flight (in another Piper Navajo) went over the White Mountains outside of Fairbanks, then north over the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Reserve, crossed the Arctic Circle and landed at the grass landing strip at Fort Yukon.
Richard Johnson, one of the village residents, met us with an old school bus for a 45 minute tour around the village. Richard was an entertaining guy (“There are 500 residents here, and 490 of them are my cousins”), but also very straightforward about issues of his tribe. The population of the village is slowly decreasing as the young folks find ways to leave and start lives in Fairbanks or elsewhere.
The village is spread over several square miles along the Yukon River. The overall impression of the village is that it is very, very poor. Most of the buildings used as homes are small, most of them made of logs, although a few are more modern materials. Most look There is a school, and a small medical center. Both of these are relatively new and look well kept. There are many abandoned homes around. Many that appear abandoned aren’t. There are a couple of churches – one of them Southern Baptist.
There are two commercial establishments in the village. One, the Alaska Commercial company, is like a general store. Alaska Commercial has been in the village since 1869, when the US bought Alaska from Russia. The other commercial establishment is the liquor store. The liquor store doesn’t have a sign outside. Doesn’t need one.
(John – I took a lot of pictures in the village that I hope are examples of “vernacular architecture”. I’m thinking it doesn’t get any more vernacular than this.)
Our guide mentioned a couple of times that the village residents were “not far removed from the Ice Age.” That’s an interesting perspective. The village is not something I’d call nice, or tidy, or pleasant to look at. It would be easy to call it depressing. But that view is entirely from the perspective of a real outsider (me) with no business judging a different culture.
It’s not easy to figure out what to make of this. Other than, it is clearly the front line of two cultures clashing. One,a traditional culture trying to maintain its subsistence ways, relying on the natural resources of their lands, and the other, the modern, outside culture impacting it.
This clash will get more severe. Fort Yukon, and several other Gwich’in villages lie in the middle of the Fort Yukon National Wildlife Preserve. The management of the Preserve has been to support the subsistence hunting and trapping activities of the villages, but there have been conflicts. More recently, studies indicate that there are millions of barrels of oil and billions of square feet of natural gas under these villages, and under the land the villagers hunt and trap on. You can bet we’ll be hearing more about this.
The flight back got in to Fairbanks airport around 11:00 pm, still in bright daylight. I got a certificate confirming I've been above the Arctic Circle.
One of the ways to get to the Arctic Circle from Fairbanks is the Dalton Highway. It goes north out of Fairbanks, past the Arctic Circle and on to Prudhoe Bay, where the pipeline starts. It’s about a 200 mile drive up the Dalton Highway to the Arctic Circle.
From the travel guide information I read, it sounded like the Dalton Highway could be tough to drive. Tough, in the sense that it’s used a lot by trucks barreling to and from Prudhoe Bay. I thought I’d ask at the visitor center to see if that was really the case.
A really helpful guy at the visitor center confirmed what the books say. The road itself, although gravel, isn’t any worse than some of the other roads I’ve been on. However, with the truck traffic, it often means you come back with a cracked windshield. And frequent flat tires are reported. It’s suggested you carry two spares on the Dalton.
I know the windshield belongs to Hertz, but having a windshield repaired or replaced sounded like more hassle than I wanted to deal with. I asked the guy at the visitor center if there were alternatives. He suggested an evening flight to Fort Yukon.
Fort Yukon is a village of a little over 500 people at the confluence of the Yukon, Porcupine, and Beaver rivers. It’s north of the Arctic Circle, and accessible only by air or by occasional supply barge up the Yukon from Fairbanks.
The inhabitants of the village are almost entirely native Alaskan – the Bwich’in tribe of the Athabascan nation. Historically, the Gwich’in were nomadic hunters, who moved in family units following the game. When the first European settlers arrived in the area, around 1850, they started forming villages and added trapping to their culture. They now live in several Alaskan and Canadian villages, mostly above the Arctic Circle. They still rely on a lot of their substance skills. Trapping is still one of the major sources of income for theGiwch’in in Fort Yukon.
The air service that does the evening flights, Warbelow’s Air Services, has regularly scheduled service (daily in most cases), to 18 of these villages in interior Alaska, carrying mail, supplies, and passengers. Several years ago they reached agreement with the Fort Yukon village elders to have an evening flight in the summer to bring a small number of folks to tour their village.
The flight (in another Piper Navajo) went over the White Mountains outside of Fairbanks, then north over the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Reserve, crossed the Arctic Circle and landed at the grass landing strip at Fort Yukon.
Richard Johnson, one of the village residents, met us with an old school bus for a 45 minute tour around the village. Richard was an entertaining guy (“There are 500 residents here, and 490 of them are my cousins”), but also very straightforward about issues of his tribe. The population of the village is slowly decreasing as the young folks find ways to leave and start lives in Fairbanks or elsewhere.
The village is spread over several square miles along the Yukon River. The overall impression of the village is that it is very, very poor. Most of the buildings used as homes are small, most of them made of logs, although a few are more modern materials. Most look There is a school, and a small medical center. Both of these are relatively new and look well kept. There are many abandoned homes around. Many that appear abandoned aren’t. There are a couple of churches – one of them Southern Baptist.
There are two commercial establishments in the village. One, the Alaska Commercial company, is like a general store. Alaska Commercial has been in the village since 1869, when the US bought Alaska from Russia. The other commercial establishment is the liquor store. The liquor store doesn’t have a sign outside. Doesn’t need one.
(John – I took a lot of pictures in the village that I hope are examples of “vernacular architecture”. I’m thinking it doesn’t get any more vernacular than this.)
Our guide mentioned a couple of times that the village residents were “not far removed from the Ice Age.” That’s an interesting perspective. The village is not something I’d call nice, or tidy, or pleasant to look at. It would be easy to call it depressing. But that view is entirely from the perspective of a real outsider (me) with no business judging a different culture.
It’s not easy to figure out what to make of this. Other than, it is clearly the front line of two cultures clashing. One,a traditional culture trying to maintain its subsistence ways, relying on the natural resources of their lands, and the other, the modern, outside culture impacting it.
This clash will get more severe. Fort Yukon, and several other Gwich’in villages lie in the middle of the Fort Yukon National Wildlife Preserve. The management of the Preserve has been to support the subsistence hunting and trapping activities of the villages, but there have been conflicts. More recently, studies indicate that there are millions of barrels of oil and billions of square feet of natural gas under these villages, and under the land the villagers hunt and trap on. You can bet we’ll be hearing more about this.
The flight back got in to Fairbanks airport around 11:00 pm, still in bright daylight. I got a certificate confirming I've been above the Arctic Circle.
1 comment:
Alan
This sounds like a great experience. I hope I get to do that someday. It sounds and looks like you are making all of the right decisions. I think the flight was a great decision. You're right you don't know when you will be that close to the arctic circle again. Can't wait to see the pictures. Great pictures posted so far.
John
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