WORK NORTHERN ALASKA

"To the lover of wilderness, Alaska is one of the most wonderful countries in the world."

—John Muir

ALASKA'S ARCTIC comprises the vast stretch of land extending north from the Yukon River, encompassing the Brooks Mountain Range, and reaching the shores of the Arctic Ocean. The position of Alaska's Arctic near the top of the globe bestows upon it extended periods with 24-hour sunlight in the summer and 24-hour darkness in the winter. The extreme seasonal climate changes associated with the alternating intensity and dearth of solar energy are the forces that have powerfully impacted the natural and cultural landscapes of Alaska's Arctic. 

 The story of Alaska's Arctic includes the stories of:

• the Inupiat and Athabascan peoples whose ability to adapt to the extremes of Alaska's Arctic has resulted in a sustainable culture that is many thousands of years old and still continues today

• early-day miners who came to Alaska's Arctic en mass at the turn of the last century in a desperate search for gold

• the flora and fauna that owe their continuing existence to their amazing ability to biologically adapt to the ever-changing extremes of their northern environment

• unique geologic and periglacial forces that have acted to shape the physical environment of Alaska's Arctic

• the discovery of oil on Alaska's arctic coast that led to the building of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline and the construction of the Dalton Highway that today remains the only highway traversing Alaska's Arctic.