Sun sets in Barrow AK for the last time Friday

November 18, 2016 8:08 PM

At 1:31 p.m. Friday the sun set in Barrow, Alaska for the last time. Ever. Or at least, it set for the last time while the city is named Barrow.

The sun won't rise again until 1:17 p.m. Jan. 22, 2017, when the city will be operating under its new name, Utqiaġvik.

Utqiaġvik won the nod from a slim majority of city voters earlier this month and now has the state's stamp of approval to take effect Dec. 1

posted by leahwrenn (18 comments total)

Whoa! Today I have learned a thing!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:16 PM on November 18, 2016 [9 favorites]

Interesting that the way I pronounced that in my head was pretty close to accurate!
posted by padraigin at 8:31 PM on November 18, 2016

I bet those vampires who ran for Barrow city council are feeling pretty stupid right now.
posted by RakDaddy at 8:52 PM on November 18, 2016 [17 favorites]

A friend of mine works for TSA and gets assigned up there for about 3 months a year, the last few years. She doesn't enjoy it, but she banks the per diem, lives on packages her husband mails her, and loses weight like crazy. She going to retire early, I think.
posted by SLC Mom at 10:04 PM on November 18, 2016 [3 favorites]

banks the per diem

Does it count as just a single diem? That'd be pretty funny.
posted by figurant at 10:12 PM on November 18, 2016 [41 favorites]

🌇

(imperfect, I know, but better than a full stop)
posted by Fongotskilernie at 12:53 AM on November 19, 2016

I'm kind of impressed by the relative lack of GRARRR over the name change. If something similar had even been proposed for a small town here in Indiana, the wingnuts and talk radio would have had a white-power field day over it.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:45 AM on November 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

The real reason was the number of Barrow-wights that live there. Too on-the-nose.
posted by blue_beetle at 5:55 AM on November 19, 2016 [3 favorites]

Fun thing about the name "Utqiaġvik"; the ġ isn't in ISO-Latin-1. That's going to break a lot of old US infosystems. I mean it's already bad enough that so many systems assume all US place names are ASCII. It plays hell in New Mexico, I used to wince every time I'd see a sign for Española spelled "Espanola". But that ġ presents a whole new challenge. Anything modern should be built in Unicode and have no problem, but government infosystems aren't known for modernity.
posted by Nelson at 6:36 AM on November 19, 2016 [6 favorites]

Point Barrow is the northernmost place in the US. It is named for Sir John Barrow, who sailed to Greenland at age 16 on a whaler.

In his position at the Admiralty, Barrow was a great promoter of Arctic voyages of discovery, including those of John Ross, William Edward Parry, James Clark Ross and John Franklin. The Barrow Strait in the Canadian Arctic as well as Point Barrow and the city of Barrow in Alaska are named after him.
posted by Bee'sWing at 9:25 AM on November 19, 2016 [1 favorite]

From the second link:

"Sir John Barrow, a civil servant in the British Royal Navy who was a big supporter of Arctic exploration. He never traveled to Alaska but Capt. Frederick William Beechey did and honored Barrow by naming a point after him, according to historical accounts."

Point Barrow keeps the same name tho.
posted by merelyglib at 9:40 AM on November 19, 2016

Omce the wights left to join the new administration, didn't make sense to keep the name.
posted by benzenedream at 9:45 AM on November 19, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm kind of impressed by the relative lack of GRARRR over the name change. If something similar had even been proposed for a small town here in Indiana, the wingnuts and talk radio would have had a white-power field day over it.
posted by Thorzdad at 8:45 AM on November 19 [1 favorite +] [!]


The real reason was the number of Barrow-wights that live there. Too on-the-nose.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:55 AM on November 19 [2 favorites +] [!]

More like a wight power field day, amirite? /sunglasses
posted by ricochet biscuit at 10:46 AM on November 19, 2016 [4 favorites]

Yeah, you'd have to be pretty hungry to eat quad.
posted by Flashman at 6:57 PM on November 19, 2016

I'd need sturdier teeth to eat frozen raw caribou meat. I've eaten (cooked) moose meat. It was delicious.
posted by Bee'sWing at 7:40 PM on November 19, 2016

I believe Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 ate Quad.
posted by Megafly at 7:59 PM on November 19, 2016

Nice to see northern relatives take small steps to end heteropaternalism's effects on Native people. Positive identity to place and home is essential to creating healthier communities.
posted by a2z at 10:22 AM on November 22, 2016

Children of the Arctic (pbs) - "At the Arctic edge of America, Native Alaskan teenagers strive to be both modern American kids, and the inheritors of an ancient whaling culture, language and tradition. 'Children of the Arctic' is a year-in-the-life portrait of Native youth coming of age in Barrow, Alaska, and the decisions they have to make about their futures."

For Samuel, Josiah, Flora, Ace and Maaya, growing up is more complicated than it was for their ancestors on the isolated tundra of Barrow, Alaska (originally named “Ukpiagvik” or “where we hunt snowy owls”). As descendants of Alaska’s Native people, they are inheritors of a centuries-old way of life that emphasizes traditional mores about community, the role of elders and the relationship to nature. Proud of their Native heritage, the teens are also modern Americans facing stark realities: a fast-changing culture and climate, modern consumer economies and the impact of oil-drilling; the teens think about life outside of Barrow and what they will make of their future.

Alaska’s ecosystem is not the only foreboding loss. Maaya travels to Point Lay, a rural community with a population of only 247 residents. Concerned about the rate of suicide attempts and deaths, she speaks to young people about feelings of isolation and depression. Meanwhile, Josiah and Flora, both 18 years old, have recently married, and Flora has earned a prestigious scholarship. They move to Fairbanks to attend college, but, their connection to the land — and their desire to spend time with their aging grandparents — calls them back home. Will the young couple strike a balance between the ways of their forefathers while making the most of a western education?

Nick Brandestini’s Children of the Arctic is a portrait of the contemporary lives of these teenagers and the decisions they have to make about their futures, taking viewers into a remote place in the American landscape. As we meet and hear Samuel, Josiah, Flora, Ace and Maaya talk about their fears and dreams, they help us understand the divergent values each tries to reconcile.

posted by kliuless at 12:12 AM on December 1, 2016