As many people live in this one town as in the entirety of the rest of Northern Alaska (the size of the UK) but why have 5,000 people chosen to live as close to the North Pole as they are their state capital?
Two part answer: 60% of the people have been living there on this land for over 1,500 years. The Iñupiaq people are native to the area call Barrow by a different name, Utqiaġvik. The other 40% are there for the oil. Barrow is the administrative center of the North Slope Borough, making it an important center for the industry and giving out of towners a reason to move to bitter cold place where the sun can barely been seen for months and pack of toilet paper will set you back $20.
