Utqiagvik (Utqiaġvik), Alaska, formerly Barrow

t the top of Alaska, on the edge of the Chukchi Sea, about 330 miles north of the Arctic Circle, sits the northernmost city in the United States. For most of the last century it was called Barrow. In October 2016, residents voted to return to the Iñupiat name, Utqiaġvik, a place for gathering wild roots, and the change took effect that December. About 61% of residents are Iñupiat, and whaling is still at the center of community life. Each spring’s successful hunts are celebrated with a festival called Nalukataq. No road has ever connected Utqiagvik to the rest of Alaska. Everything arrives by plane, or on ocean barges during the short summer sealift. Even the airport carries a piece of the town’s history: it’s named for Wiley Post and Will Rogers, who died in 1935 when their plane crashed about 15 miles south of town. The light here follows extremes. Every November 18, the sun sets and stays below the horizon for about 66 days, until January 23. In summer, the reverse happens, and the sun doesn’t set for about 83 days. February averages around −12°F. Today about 4,900 people live in Utqiagvik. It’s the seat of the North Slope Borough and home to long-running climate monitoring stations that track how fast the Arctic is changing.