Discover

'Point Barrow' or 'Nuvuk', is a headland on the Arctic coast of the U.S. state of Alaska, located 15 km (9 mi) northeast of Barrow. It is the northernmost point of the United States, at . The distance to the North Pole is 2078 km (1292 mi / 1122 nm).
The first European to discover the point was English geographer Frederick William Beechey, who encountered it in 1825. It is named for Sir John Barrow, a statesman and geographer of the British Admiralty. The water around the point is normally ice-free for only two or three months a year, but this period is increasing,^[1] possibly due to global warming. Point Barrow has served as a jumping-off point for many Arctic expeditions, including the Wilkins-Detroit Arctic Expeditions and the April 15, 1928 Eielson-Wilkins flight across the Arctic Ocean to Spitsbergen.
Point Barrow is close to site of the airplane crash that on August 15, 1935, killed two famous individuals: aviator Wiley Post and his sole passenger, the widely respected social commentator Will Rogers.
Between 1965 and 1972, the point was used as a launch site for Nike Cajun and Nike Apache sounding rockets. It is also the site of a Global Atmosphere Watch atmospheric monitoring station.

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References

1. http://seagrant.uaf.edu/nosb/papers/2005/seward-jeannot.html

External links

★ Rocket launches at Point Barrow