WAINWRIGHT
The Community
Wainwright is located along a wave-eroded coastal bluff on the west side of a narrow peninsula that separates Wainwright Inlet from the Chukchi Sea. Wainwright is about 72 air miles southwest of Barrow.
The inlet was named in 1826 by Captain F.W. Beechey for his officer, Lt. John Wainwright. The present village was established in 1904 when the Alaska Native Service built a school there. The community was incorporated as a second-class city in 1962.
Population And Economy
Wainwright is the third largest village in the North Slope Borough, with a population in 2003 close to 556 and a work force near 221. Ninety three percent of the residents are Inupiat Eskimos. The North Slope Borough remains the largest employer in Wainwright, with 28 percent of the workforce. The next largest employer is the Wainwright Village Corporation, the Olgoonik Corporation, with 22 percent of the workforce.
Wainwright's subsistence hunting is based primarily on whales and caribou. Local arts and crafts include carved ivory figurines and jewelry, baleen boats, whale bone carvings, clocks, knitted caps and gloves.
Quality Of life
The North Slope Borough provides public electricity, and maintains a water/ sewer treatment facility. Average utility costs for households in Wainwright have increased 28.5 percent between 1998 and 2003. Average electric cost have doubled during the period, while expenses for water increased by 39 percent and average heating cost rose only 13 percent. Ninety-six percent of the households in Wainwright rely upon diesel oil as a source of heating fuel. The Borough still provides trash pick-up services free of charge.
A health clinic, staffed by community health aides, is open each day and is available 24 hours a day for emergencies. Other public facilities include the police station, fire station, vehicle maintenance facility and teacher housing. Wainwright has a public transit system.
Alak School provides education from pre-school to grade 12 and offers adult basic education and vocational education. The school has a swimming pool and gymnasium that is used by the public.
Olgoonik Corporation, Wainwright's village corporation, runs the Native store and sells groceries, clothing, first-aid supplies, hardware, camera film and sporting goods. Fuel in town includes marine gas, diesel, propane, unleaded, regular and supreme. City law prohibits the possession, sale and importation of alcohol.
Visitors to Wainwright will find a hotel and restaurant, and several recreational activities. In the spring, the community gathers for Nalukataq, the feast after a successful whaling season. At this festival and on other occasions, Eskimo dances are performed by the villagers. Other activities include boating, snowmobiling, and smelt fishing in the spring.
Transportation to Wainwright is available by scheduled and chartered air service from Barrow. Freight arrives by cargo plane and barge. Communications in town include phones, mail, public radio and cable TV.
For more information contact:
City of Wainwright
PO Box 9
Wainwright, AK
99782
(907) 763-2815