The Point Barrow Refuge Station, also known as the Cape Smythe Whaling and Trading Station, is a historic wooden building in Utqiagvik, Alaska. The oldest wooden building along the Arctic Coast of Alaska, it is located near Isatkoak Lagoon 11 miles (18 km) south of Point Barrow, the northernmost point of the United States. It initially consisted of a large central room featuring 50 bunk beds, but the building was later expanded and converted for commercial use. Its former coal bunker was converted into a small kitchen and pantry. The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1980. After a series of disasters and shipwrecks among the American whaling fleets in the Arctic Ocean during the late 1800s, the United States Revenue Cutter Service constructed a building to host stranded sailors near Point Barrow. The station operated from 1889 to 1896. Its superintendent Gilbert Bennett Borden sparked controversy after he conducted private trading in the region during his service, fought with whaling crews and his assistant-stationkeeper, and attempted to purchase a grounded schooner and outfit it with the station's provisions. Borden was removed in 1892 and the station saw little activity over the following years, before it was closed and sold to Cape Smyth Whaling and Trading Company manager Charles Brower in 1896. Brower expanded the building, and his son converted it into a restaurant, Brower's Cafe.
Structure The Point Barrow Refuge Station is a historic wooden building and former trading post in Utqiagvik, Alaska, 11 miles (18 km) south of Point Barrow, the northernmost point of the United States. It is located near the northwest corner of Isatkoak Lagoon in what was initially the village of Browersville, later annexed into the city. It is the oldest wooden building along the Arctic coast of Alaska. Before additions were constructed in the 20th century, the building measured 30 by 48 feet (9 by 10 m), or roughly 1,440 square feet (134 m2). It had a large central room featuring 50 bunks. Attached was a large coal bunker at the northeast edge and a roofed vestibule to the southwest. After renovations, the front of the building was extended by about 15 feet (5 m), resulting in a floor area of 1,890 square feet (176 m2). The coal bunker was also renovated into a small pantry and kitchen area, about 20 square feet (1.9 m2) in area.
History The Alaskan North Slope, including Point Barrow, was traditionally inhabited by the Iñupiat was discovered by Europeans in 1826, when it was sighted by the British explorer Frederick W. Beechey's expedition and named for his sponsor Sir John Barrow. Whaling activity came to the Arctic Ocean around Alaska after the discovery of large whale populations of 1848. Declining numbers of bowhead whales from overhunting led whaling ships to travel to more remote areas and stay later into the year. This led to many ships becoming trapped or destroyed by sea ice. As part of the First International Polar Year in 1881, the United States Army Signal Corps lieutenant Patrick Henry Ray erected a meteorology and astronomy observation station south of Point Barrow, at the future site of the refuge station. An American whaling ship, the North Star, was destroyed by sea ice in July 1882, with its crew sheltering at the station until they were reunited with other whaling ships a month later. The meteorology station closed the following year, but the federal government leased the structure to the San Francisco-based Pacific Steam Whaling Company, then the largest whaling company in the northern Pacific. The company used it as a trading post and a base for shore whaling during the spring, and was mandated under the lease to care for the crew of any nearby shipwrecks. Support grew among both whaling company leadership and government officials for the creation of a manned lifesaving station at Point Barrow. Josiah N. Knowles, the manager of the Pacific Steam Whaling Company, offered to establish a station at the site for the United States Life-Saving Service, but no action was taken. Several incidents among American whaling ships in the Arctic during the winter of 1888 prompted the United States Congress to consider a bill to establish stations along the Arctic in Alaska. Although whaling captains had proposed a system of stations along the most dangerous regions, Congress approved in 1889 the establishment of only a single refuge station, at Point Barrow.
Construction and operation
Several applicants competed for the position of superintendent of the station. These included the explorer William H. Gilder, the whaling agent Henry D. Woolfe, and the Signal Corps interpreter Edward P. Herendeen. Thanks to the sponsorship and advocacy of New Bedford customs collector Weston Howland, the retired whaling captain Gilbert Bennett Borden was appointed to the position in May 1889. Construction of the station began in August 1889, at the site of the former signal station. It was assembled using precut lumber transported by USS Bear and USS Thetis. Three United States Revenue Cutter Service officers—Captain Michael A. Healy, Captain Charles Stockton, and Lieutenant David H. Jarvis—managed the construction, overseeing a team of carpenters recruited from nearby whaling ships. Fifty bunk-beds were installed in the station, alongside a large coal bunker and a year's supply of provisions.
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