# 3 Dalton Highway Termination-Arctic Circle Prudhoe Bay area

Now you have evidence that Prudhoe Bay and Deadhorse are indeed the same place. When at long last a post office with it's own zip code was coming to Prudhoe Bay, the post office rejoiced that now the area would be known by its true name-Prudhoe Bay. Alas, apparently someone in the government saw it differently as the zip code is for Deadhorse, AK. Why you wonder is the "town" (loose name for the area) called deadhorse? Lots of stories about how it got it's name but the only one I remember is that after struggling all the way up here from the Yukon River and finding the temperatures to be sub-zero, the horse fell over dead. Don't blame me.

Deadhorse sits on the edge of Prudhoe Bay and is the industrial camp that supports the Prudhoe Bay oilfield. There are no public outhouses and no tent camping allowed. There is a population of 25 permanent residents and between 3,500 and 5,000 part-time residents, depending on oil production.

Prudhoe Bay is the largest oil field in the U.S. and the 18th largest in the world.

Scroll down through the pictures to get a general idea of the industrial environment of the oil fields.

We stayed overnight in a building similar to the orange one and white trimmed in blue left. The compartment was small, included 3 beds, 3 closets and 3 lockable drawers and 1 desk. Very crammed for 3 people living there. Hopefully they are on different work schedules. The door to our room was a freezer door....really.

These train like cars, along with the folks who are going to work out of them, are taken out to the tundra every winter after freeze up. The cars become homes as well as working space while daily seismic reading are taken of the grounds, above and below. Overnight the cars are moved from place to place for the next days work.

These bright yellow machines with the flat looking tires are what are used to move the cars shown above on the frozen tundra. It was found that "soft" tires (not flat tires) made for easier movement on the tundra, which is full of sharp ice and potholes.

There are now about 15 different areas in this complex that are being being drilled for oil, each with a different name. Originally each oil well took up a huge footprint of space, fueling the dislike by so many of drilling in "pristine" Alaska. Today the square building you see above, are the size of an oil well. These are all individual wells and each takes no more than size of these individual box type buildings .

The pipes you see to the right are carrying the oil from the sea into the oil field houses seen in the previous picture above. The entire operation is very neat, clean and compact.

The beach sand on the way out to the Arctic Ocean is a reminder that the area is really a dry desert area. With only 5" of precipitation a year, I'd guess it would be dry and desert like. Remember Deadhorse is at sea level and the frozen permafrost keeps the water on top of the soil.









This fellow on the shores of the Arctic Ocean is a Dunlin.

View of the Arctic Ocean

Like the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, there is no land to be seen on the otherside of the Arctic Ocean. While at waters edge we were able to collect Arctic Ocean water. Not sure why I needed to have the water though. Guess cuz Jerry asked us to bring him some back.

Most of the buildings in Deadhorse are modular, pre-fab type construction, situated on gravel pads on tundra bogs. Virtually all the businesses here are engaged in oil field or pipeline support maintenance, telecommunications, warehousing and transportation. Workers typically work 10 to 12 hours daily for two weeks, then have two weeks off. While in Deadhorse working, all housing, meal, and clothing is paid for by the company they work for. Said companies also fly the workers on their off weeks back and forth to Deadhorse. All folks need really are their personal items. Linens and towels are furnished and accommodations cleaned every couple of days. They pay is pretty good and the overtime adds considerably to the income.



Ah, Ha! The truth of the name Deadhorse comes out...according to an article in the Prudhoe Bay Journal, the area was named after Deadhorse Haulers, a company hired to do the gravel work at the Prudhoe Bay airstrip. Everyone began calling the airstrip "Deadhorse" and the name stuck. there are several companies working in the Deadhorse area; essentially with the same benefits.

We were told there are 6 reserves currently in the Prudhoe Bay area. Three have been been opened and used since operations began 1977. Todate 11 billion barrels of oil have been produced from those three tanks. The other three reserves remain capped for future use.
The Purdhoe Bay field also contains 26 trillion cubic feet of natural gas "(in place) in an overlying gas cap and in solution with the oil.

After having been to Prudhoe Bay and the flat treeless plains that extend for 88,000 square miles which includes the ANWR area, I see no reason not to drill ANWR. The developed area of the North Slope area encompasses about 312 square miles, not much out of 88,000 square miles. It is hardly a dent in the tundra. ANWR stands for Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. The proposed drilling is only at the northern most point of the ANWR and statistics point to animals not being adversely affected by the current oil fields in place. Ads on TV show the Brooks Mt. Range as being affected, but it is not. It is the much more northerly tundra only.

Caught a terrific up close view of a single Caribou on our way south.

The wild and scenic beauty along the Dalton Highway.

And one last look at Muskox, this one guarding the baby I wrote about earlier.

Ah, yes our little red truck did receive the Dalton Highway brown paint job, from head to toe.
















Would you say we collected a little mud and dirt along the trip? And this was just from the trip up. The roads were dry and smooth coming south.

What a great trip we had. It was rather expensive with the cost of fuel, over night lodging three nights and meals and the tour of Prudhoe Bay (the least of the cost). The tour is the only way to actually get to the Arctic Ocean. Jerry and Judy were convinced after our trip to make the same trip in their truck camper and waited for Betty and George to join them. Expect them back home here at the Moose Lodge in Fairbanks any time now.

BBFN, Karen and Don