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Culture, industry and wildlife are Arctic Alaska's attractions

Barrow area includes Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial

Alaska.com

The region above the Arctic Circle also has a large variety of natural attractions, most of them in Gates of the Arctic and Kobuk Valley national parks preserves and monuments.

During the summer, there's plenty of sunlight -- nonstop daylight for part of the summer -- so visiting schedules can be flexible.

Barrow
Part of Barrow's attraction is its location at the top of the United States. Some visitors go to wade into the Arctic Ocean or see the northern lights; others want to see the whale culture or Distant Early Warning site or migratory birds.

Point Barrow is six miles north of the town of Barrow. It can be walked to or visited on a rented four-wheeler. A walkable 13 miles south of town is the Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial, commemorating the aviator and humorist who crashed there in 1935.

The Inupiat Heritage Center features the "Frozen Family," a group of people mummified 500 years ago apparently when pack ice slid over their home and buried them. Artifacts from this Mound 44 archeological project are on display; the four bodies were reburied in a cemetery.

Kotzebue
Visitors to northwest Alaska can stop at the Innaigvik Education and Information Center and offices for the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management and Fish and Wildlife Service to learn more about Kotzebue and the nearby wild lands: Kobuk Valley National Park, Cape Krusenstern National Monument, Noatak National Preserve and Selawik National Wildlife Refuge.

Kotzebue's Arctic Tours and Alaska Airlines have tour packages that visit the NANA Museum of the Arctic near the airport. The options include a museum program, a culture camp, and a five-hour package that includes the museum, clothing demonstrations and a walk on the tundra.

Kotzebue is also a short hop from the Project Chariot site south of Point Hope and north of Kivalina, where the federal government intended to blast out a harbor with atomic weapons.

Kiana
The Kiana Lodge offers riverboat trips up the Kobuk River into the archeologically significant Kobuk Valley National Park. Hikers may get off to climb an overlook; a visit to a canyon may also be arranged. Visitors may also help catch whitefish, sheefish and salmon at an Inupiat fish camp, then watch how the fish are preserved for the long winter. This area east of Kotzebue is also a good location for sport fishing and hunting.

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