I first arrived in Kotzebue in January 1993, landing in the winter darkness in the midst of a snowstorm. I meant to only stay for several months, but ended up living here for two and a half years—first as editor of the local newspaper, then striking out on my own doing desktop publishing work.
I’m back, now, for two days, and it’s much milder weather today, if you can call temperatures in the mid-40s in July mild. As the plane landed around 11 a.m., the local temperature was 39 degrees—I was wishing I hadn’t left my jacket behind as I rushed out of the house in Anchorage this morning.
Kotzebue is a town of about 3,000 people—mostly Inupiat Eskimos — located 30 miles above the Arctic Circle and not connected to the rest of the world by road. The only way in and out of the area is by plane—Alaska Airlines flies several 737 jets a day between Kotzebue and Anchorage, 550 miles to the south. The town is located on a gravel spit at the tip of the Baldwin Peninsula, which juts out into Kotzebue Sound, which in turn leads into the Bering Sea.
Kotzebue itself is not what you’d call picturesque (the beautiful areas of this region are across the Sound on the mainland). But I was lucky to have a bit of blue sky blow in tonight, so I went out to see if I could capture some shots that would put a good face on this excellent little arctic burg.