13 ms·

A town of about 200 people, almost all of whom live in the same building

673 points by samclemens 12y ago

gmoore 12y ago
There's a TV series in that for sure!
tsuresh 12y ago
Reminds me of the film Snowpiercer.
kayge 12y ago
I live in Alaska and have visited Whittier multiple times. Every time we go, my wife and I comment about how great of a setting it would be for a zombie apocalypse movie. "Oh it's only accessible by water or the main tunnel, it's easy to secure" "oops we forgot about securing the old train tunnel" "oh no they're in the apartment building, let's go hide out in the creepy old abandoned building down the street" ... clearly I'm not going to be writing the screenplay, but the location has a lot of potential!
- percept 12y ago
  "he has recently been in talks with two reality television production companies and the producers of a Gerard Butler submarine movie." http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittier-people-06/ http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittie... Not quite the same, I guess.
  - fold 12y ago
    http://www.adn.com/article/20141212/big-budget-thriller-be-filmed-tiny-whittier-next-year http://www.adn.com/article/20141212/big-budget-thriller-be-f...
- pcthrowaway 12y ago
  It would be a great place to hold out with a large group if you had a way to obtain and import supplies and you cleared the building first. You'd probably be able to spot anyone coming or going (living or undead), and it would be likely that very few zombies would be in the surrounding land. Also, of course zombie fiction requires a major suspension of disbelief in this regard, but the damp/cold weather would cause the zombie bodies to freeze (at below zero) or decay faster (at above zero, though I suspect it is rarely if ever above zero)
  - yourapostasy 12y ago
    The Whittier temperature averages [1] seem to indicate a 6-9 month period where highs are above freezing. That would make for some exciting daytime zombie interactions. By comparison, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica [2] does indeed appear to be below freezing on average the vast majority of the year. To hide out from the zombie hordes behind an impenetrable wall of freezing air, you would just have to set up shop at some place like Amundsen Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica [3]. Once the jet fuel (what they use for power) runs out though, it will get unpleasantly cold, fast. [1] http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/whittier/alaska/united-states/usak0266 http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/whittier/alaska/united-... [2] http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=46698 http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=46698 [3] http://www.foresthillweather.com/PHP/Metar2/AntarcticaAverages.php http://www.foresthillweather.com/PHP/Metar2/AntarcticaAverag...
    - jdcarter 12y ago
      Antarctica doesn't need zombies, it already has Aliens and Predators doing battle down there. A continent can only take so much! (Apologies to those who missed the first AvP movie.)
  - foobarian 12y ago
    Given that zombies usually don't obey the laws of thermodynamics, if I lived in a place like Whittier I'd probably try to harness them to some kind of hamster wheel driving a generator.
    - pcthrowaway 12y ago
      I don't think there's enough evidence to claim that zombies don't obey the laws of thermodynamics specifically. Perhaps zombie-ism transforms something in their core into a nuclear reactor that slowly converts atoms into a near-endless supply of energy. It's apparent that they don't obey physical laws, but which ones specifically depends on your interpretation.
  - stormbrew 12y ago
    Contrary to popular belief, while temperatures do go down on average as you go further north, the really pronounced difference is how much it varies between its extremes. Realize that in the summer in these northern places, the sun is shining (or at least in twilight) past midnight, and comes back up very early in the morning, only a handful of hours later [1]. It actually gets quite warm [2]. [1] http://www.alaska.org/weather/daylight-hours/whittier/june http://www.alaska.org/weather/daylight-hours/whittier/june [2] http://weatherspark.com/averages/33093/6/Whittier-Alaska-United-States http://weatherspark.com/averages/33093/6/Whittier-Alaska-Uni...
Kiro 12y ago
I wouldn't mind living there. I've been dreaming about moving somewhere remote and just do freelance work. The only requirement is a good internet connection which sadly excludes a lot of cool places.
- sanoli 12y ago
  The thing is, this town is not only remote, but during the winter you have to pretty much dug in and stay inside. No going anywhere. It's not the same as just being somewhere isolated and remote, and you have to take that into consideration. Some people might enjoy it anyway.
  - grecy 12y ago
    > and stay inside Huh? Why would you stay inside when you live in such a beautiful place? I live in the Yukon - it's -37C today and it's absolutely beautiful outside. I rode to work today, and just did a 1 hour round trip walk to the library to drop off some books. I'll go for a ~2 hour snow shoe tonight in the dark with my headlamp. I saw the Northern Lights last night, so I'll take my camera tonight. Winter is actually the most beautiful season - the snow is so clean and bright, and the sun shines off all the ice crystals so beautifully. It was cold this day - http://theroadchoseme.com/mendenhall-glacier-juneau-alaska http://theroadchoseme.com/mendenhall-glacier-juneau-alaska
    - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
      Reminds me of Harbin, on the bus trip from Changchun in the winter I watched the mercury fall from -20 to -35. It wasn't really that bad (my digital camera battery failed me at the ice sculptures, however).
      - grecy 12y ago
        Yesterday I drove 1225km from British Colombia to my home in the Yukon. I started the day at -5C, saw it hit -39C on the drive and finished at -36C. It was the most beautiful blue-sky sunny day and sunset. The full moon, Northern Lights and herd of Caribou helped too :)
sanoli 12y ago
And I lived in a city with about 14 million people, where one building had about 3 thousand people living in it (it has its own zip code). So different it made me want to visit this town in Alaska.
megatroll 12y ago
It would be interesting to see what these people do for a living. Why are they there? There are children, so there must be families who have decided to move there.
- haroldp 12y ago
  It's a good port. Alaska depends on tons of stuff shipped in from other places. The Alcan is a pretty shitty drive for trucking stuff up. Alaska's biggest city is a very poor port, and second biggest city is inland, so freight comes in on barges through Whittier, and then around the state via the railroad. Anchorage elites park their boats in Whittier's small boat harbor. In the summers, fishing and tourism are big.
- rukittenme 12y ago
  I imagine fishing, oil and gas, and Alaska's (edit) $2,000 stipend for residents is what keeps them there.
  - ceejayoz 12y ago
    Given Alaska's high cost of living, that $2k doesn't make much of a dent.
  - rockdiesel 12y ago
    Are you referring to the Alaska Permanent Fund? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund#Annual_individual_payout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund#Annual_in... If so, it's not a $2,000 stipend and it's only been $2,000 once since it's inception. Or is there another stipend you're referring to?
- matthewdavis 12y ago
  >In summer, cruise ships, charter boats, and commercial fishing vessels bring thousands of visitors to Whittier’s harbor on the west side of Prince William Sound. Sounds like tourism is a large portion of income.
  - 12y ago
onezeno 12y ago
I googled the location, expecting it to be in the far north of Alaska, given the description. But it's just southeast of Anchorage. Is the weather really that much worse?
- turk- 12y ago
  Microclimates: "Anchorage climate similar to northern Midwest Now let’s talk about the winters. The truth is, they aren’t as bad as myth would have it. Anchorage actually has a warmer climate than other cold-weather cities like Chicago or Minneapolis because it’s on the ocean. Southeast Alaska stays relatively warm for the same reason. The Interior, however, does get very cold. Without the regulating influence of the ocean, temperatures in interior locations like Fairbanks can drop to minus-30 for weeks at a time (though it’s a dry cold, which doesn’t feel as cold as it sounds). Just remember that temperature is microclimate in Alaska. No matter where you are, a one- or two-hour drive in any direction can result in a 30-degree temperature change." "Abundant snow creates winter wonderland Likewise, there’s a large variation in snowfall across the state. An average of 79 inches of snow falls on Anchorage every year (the same amount as Burlington, Vermont). But Talkeetna, only two hours north, gets considerably more snow due to the higher elevation, and Alyeska — just an hour from Anchorage — receives an average of 178 inches annually!" http://www.alaska.net/weather.html http://www.alaska.net/weather.html
- haroldp 12y ago
  I grew up there! The weather is a lot different than Anchorage. Anchorage is colder. Whittier gets a TON more precipitation. The Army actually built Whittier during WWII because it was a good deepwater port (ironically, Anchorage has huge tides that make it a horrible anchorage) that was always overcast, making it hard, they thought, for the Japanese to bomb.
- cossatot 12y ago
  I was there doing some geology this May, and one of the AK geol. survey guys mentioned that the previous summer, some of his colleagues were working directly across the fjord on the hillside on a clear, sunny day. A snowstorm sprang up pretty suddenly and they got stranded for several days. IIRC one of them had a little deployable shelter but the other had to hide under some boulders. As a side note, Whittier has a huge tsunami risk, not from typical undersea earthquakes but because the mountainside on the north side of Whittier Sound is unstable and some very big blocks of rock (100s of m) are slowly breaking off from the bedrock. If (when) these fall, they could create a pretty massive wave that could devastate the town. [1] [1]: http://137.229.113.30/webpubs/dggs/ri/text/ri2011_007a.pdf http://137.229.113.30/webpubs/dggs/ri/text/ri2011_007a.pdf edit: added tsunami info
ehmorris 12y ago
Photographer has more photos here: http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittier-location-02/ http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittie... Also the full version of the article in OP's link
- megablast 12y ago
  There are some great images here: http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Whittier.htm http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Whittier.htm This one gives a great aerial view of the town: http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Aerial_Photos_Whittier.htm http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Aerial_Photos_Whittier.htm It is one huge parking lot.
  - collyw 12y ago
    Wow, it looks stunning in summer (not the town, but the surroundings).
neals 12y ago
Funny how that works. I saw somebody mention this city in a thread on Reddit yesterday. He talked about visiting somebody there and having to wait 1.5 hours because the one-way-tunnel changes "direction" every 2 hours...
_delirium 12y ago
This arrangement looks a lot better than the norm in that area. The typical 200-person remote Alaskan town is more of a shantytown, a depressing collection of low-quality single-story shacks. This at least looks like solid construction, probably more weatherproof than the norm, and with some indoor community spaces. Seems like a decent solution for such a town, in the rare case where the capital to build such a building is available (in this case it was only because the U.S. military built it).
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- Turing_Machine 12y ago
  Whittier isn't anything like "remote" by Alaska standards. It's on the rail system and (now) the road system. Most Alaska towns and villages aren't.
lucaspiller 12y ago
This article makes it sound like some remote wilderness where you would freeze instantly when you go outside. The climate there (according to wikipedia) isn't that cold, right now it's -12c with a high of 3c over the next few days - there are plenty of European cities with colder climates. Still an interesting place none the less. They have an official website with more details: http://begichtowers.com/ http://begichtowers.com/ - there is a unit for sale for $40k if anyone is interested :D
- CanSpice 12y ago
  The full article (http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittier-location-02/ http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittie...) has this to say about the weather: > The first thing we noticed when we arrived in Whittier was the wind—we were barely out of the car when a powerful gust pushed us down the hill. People in Whittier get out of their cars carefully; the wind has been known to shatter windshields and bend car doors backwards. Because the weather can be so extreme, kids often walk to school via an underground tunnel. The town averages around 250 inches of snow annually, but some recent years have seen closer to 400 inches. Two winters ago the snowdrifts near Whittier School were piled so high that the principal let students go outside to take pictures of one another hanging from a street lamp.
- grecy 12y ago
  Coastal Alaska isn't nearly as cold as everyone thinks. The ocean keeps it mild. It snows a lot, and it's often windy, but the actual temperature is rarely below ~ -20C. I'm in the Yukon, away from the ocean. I rode my bike to work at -37C this morning :)
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    My mom grew up in the panhandle (Ketchikan) which rarely even sees snow, I guess (but lots of rain).
    - grecy 12y ago
      That's a LONG way South of me :)
noobermin 12y ago
It would be interesting if someone tried this in one of these larger cities with high rises like Singapore. You'd create a smaller groups with a sense of community while still giving members the benefits of living in a large city. The reason I thought of this is it reminded me of a strategy of using small bible study groups being employed in a large church that was part of my alma mater. The idea is that it was easier and more intimate in these small groups, so they'd have the ability to hold more personal sutdy sessions. Of course, they still belonged to the main body and had those advantages, such as a larger number of volunteers, etc. Something like that could create the "small town atmosphere" many city dwellers seek without destroying the city.
- erroneousfunk 12y ago
  This is essentially what college campuses do already, to some extent. My current apartment complex also hosts activities, movie nights, brings in nurses so residents can meet and ask about health problems. This is in addition to the playground, tennis/basketball court, computer room, gym, small theater, and other amenities that help to create a "community" atmosphere. Also, I think a big reason this model is so "successful" is that people don't have much of an alternative. Really, would you _prefer_ to go to that sketchy-looking grocery store with the mayonnaise next to the cereal, if you had the choice of going a few blocks to a large supermarket? To be honest, I've never spent any time using my own apartment's amenities. I live in the city, because I want to be with people like me, not because I want forced socialization with people who just happen to live together.
  - tracker1 12y ago
    I live in the city, because I want to be with people like me, not because I want forced socialization with people who just happen to live together. That just sounds like a contradiction...
    - marssaxman 12y ago
      Only if you assume that physical proximity is the most significant attribute two people can have in common! Aside from my housemates, I don't know so much as the first name of any other person on my block; but I live here because dozens of my friends live within a mile of my house.
farslan 12y ago
This video is about a Teacher who lives in that building. It's really cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naPguX84Amg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naPguX84Amg
uslic001 12y ago
We took an Alaskan cruise last year on Princess. We left from Vancouver and our last port of call was in Whittier. Then we had to take our turn going through the train/car tunnel to Anchorage for our flight home. If you mistime your ride through the tunnel you can miss your flight. We had a really late flight so we had no problems.
adouzzy 12y ago
It sounds like emacs to me. Pure awesomeness.
rapidally 12y ago
Why is this on hackernews? Stick to tech.
- mod 12y ago
  Because I, a hacker and the target audience of Hacker News, find it very, very interesting.
  - theoh 12y ago
    It's not one of Eric S. Raymond's talking points, but the backwoodsman aspect of hacker culture seems really important, and also, probably, fatal to its long-term spread.
    - lmm 12y ago
      How do you reconcile that with so much of hackerdom being in and around San Francisco (and a lot of the remainder being MIT)?
      - theoh 12y ago
        Well, first of all it's not a geographical description. The nature of "hacking", which is a self-reliant activity of producing provisional solutions, has a lot in common with the ethos of life in remote areas or on a frontier. Even the word hacking evokes chopping firewood or doing some other woodwork task in a rough, ad-hoc way. This is combined with a sense of mutual aid which is often present even in (maybe especially in) thinly-populated areas. Gabriella Coleman might be a good source for more insight into this. Just why hacker communities behave as if they are isolated even in an urban environment is not something I understand, but from personal experience they are self-selected groups of people with particular traits, who often have difficulty being accepted by mainstream culture, or who scorn the mainstream. I haven't read Coleman's book, but it is available here: http://gabriellacoleman.org/Coleman-Coding-Freedom.pdf http://gabriellacoleman.org/Coleman-Coding-Freedom.pdf (When Dijkstra talked about "coding bums" in relation to APL, he didn't mean that they would be drinking and sleeping rough...)
Coincoin 12y ago
This reminds me of Fermont[1], a remote Canadian city in northern Quebec that I visited when I was young. There is this 1.3 km long building shaped like a wall with all services, shops, restaurants and apartments in it. The wall protects the rest of the city from northern winds. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermont
- arethuza 12y ago
  Also reminds me of some French ski resorts - I think Tignes Le Lac has one huge long building, one of the area of La Plagne as well.
  - palunon 12y ago
    I think you're referring to the Plagne Aime 2000 main building. It's nowhere near 1km long tough http://images.dunordausud.fr/HIVER/plagneaime/station/plagneaime1.jpg http://images.dunordausud.fr/HIVER/plagneaime/station/plagne...
haroldp 12y ago
W00h! I grew up in Whittier, AK. Ask me Anything! Haha, seriously, I moved to Whittier at the age of 2 in 1974 and lived there until 1986. The big change there since I left has been the tunnel. When I was there you had to drive your car up onto a railroad flatcar (and pay a steep ticket price) to get out. Anchorage is only 55 miles away, but really it's two mountains away. The railroad sold passenger service only as a requirement of the state and prioritized it behind freight. Between that, avalanches and assorted weather problems, you could wait hours and hours for a train. Winter service wasn't even daily, back then. We didn't even have cable. Just PBS and one channel that mixed shows from the three big networks. It was strange. Yes, most residents live in one big 14 story high-rise in rural Alaska. I most definitely do not miss it. I recommend this book if you want more info: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578331919/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578331919/
- alandarev 12y ago
  I will grasp this amazing opportunity and flood you with these questions: 1. Why the town even exists? Article tells nothing about its purpose. 2. What are the most jobs? Is there any production? 3. How did it feel to live in such a small community?
  - Someone1234 12y ago
    I can answer #1 it is a major cruise port. Many Alaskan cruises start in Whittier. If you ever take an Alaska cruise you'll likely take the train into Whittier then get on the ship without spending a lot of time there. It is a town of only 200 some odd people.
  - keevie 12y ago
    Actually it was built in WW2 after the japanese attacked the Aleutian Islands---the Americans were desperate to be able to defend US soil, and Whittier was perfect from a military standpoint: constantly clouded over (some insane number of days a year they get precipitation) deepwater port, surrounded by mountains.
  - haroldp 12y ago
    > 1. Why the town even exists? OK, history/geography lesson... The Kenai peninsula hangs down into the Gulf of Alaska and sort of separates those two areas. The landscape around there is very mountainous. However, Whittier has a low mountain pass to "easily" travel between Passage Canal (not an actual canal) on the east side to Turnigan Arm and Anchorage (more of a muddy tentacle) on the West side. Portage Pass was where natives would portage their kayaks through there back in the day, and European explorers adopted the route. Fast forward to World War II, and the US Army developed the site into a town, building pretty much everything bigger than a shack that you see there today. The Japanese were taking US islands in the Aleutians, and we needed to be able to get war materiel up there. You can't take it directly to Anchorage because it's a horrible port, with huge tides. So the Army built two big docks and a tank farm for petrolium. They connected it to Anchorage with a railroad. Unforunately, the old native portage was over Portage Glacier, and impassable in the summer. So they built one of the longest tunnels in the world through the mountains (also a second quite long tunnel). After WWII built Whittier's big residential buildings, Beggich Towers pictured in the article and the abandoned, Buckner Building. The Army pulled out of Whittier in the 50s, only a few short years after the two big buildings were built. Whittier survives as a town today as a port, and on top of that Army infrastructure. > 2. What are the most jobs? Is there any production? Most of the jobs are at the port, the railroad and the tank farm. In the summer, there's fishing and tourism. Everything else pretty much hangs off those. > 3. How did it feel to live in such a small community? I hated it. Other people liked it. Imagine having 0-4 other kids in your grade. Those are all of your friends. Pick your best friend and your girl friend from that pool. The weather was shit. Summer was SHORT and muddy. Winter was long and DARK. Absolutely everyone is absolutely all up in your business all the time. The views were real nice when it wasn't raining or snowing. It was usually raining or snowing. Opportunities for doing anything beyond school or work were pretty narrow.
jdimov 12y ago
Kowloon of the west :)
NinjaTime 12y ago
Hell most jails in the U.S dwarf this complex. Dear lord I hope an EMP never hits any of those towns. Sure hope the gov hasn't taken away the ability to protect yourself.
- darkstar999 12y ago
  ...what?
- ceejayoz 12y ago
  To my knowledge, EMP has killed precisely zero people in human history. I'd be curious as to why you think people living in a high-rise can't defend themselves.
  - pluma 12y ago
    Probably because an EMP would fry most electric devices? I'm not sure it would affect the heating (there's likely electricity involved, but I'm not sure how an EMP might affect it precisely), but the GP might have thought along those lines.
    - ceejayoz 12y ago
      An EMP means we're at nuclear war with a superpower, and Alaskans likely defend themselves with guns, not lasers.
      - palunon 12y ago
        So the nuclear superpower at war with america thinks "Hey, should I launch this ICBM on LA or on this 200 people building in the middle of nowhere ?"
- pluma 12y ago
  I think Alaskans would be able to defend themselves just fine. As far as I know they ride bears to work and eat raw fish. My sources may not be perfectly accurate all the time, though.
hownottowrite 12y ago
Whittier is also home to the Buckner Building. 250k square feet, abandoned after the 1964 earthquake and left to rot. In other words, a perfect place for indoor skiing. http://vimeo.com/50860740 http://vimeo.com/50860740
- pizza 12y ago
  wow
- frik 12y ago
  Why do they build such tall buildings in an earth quake area? Why is such an destroyed inhabited building still around 50 years later? In other parts of the world there would be many smaller buildings and inhabited ugly buildings would be removed. I like the creative use of the building in the video, great work!
  - btilly 12y ago
    Why do they build such tall buildings in an earth quake area? The basic answer is that they had no idea what kind of earthquake was possible there. That earthquake is #3 on the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes#Largest_earthquakes_by_magnitude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes#Largest_ea... and was the second megathrust earthquake recorded since the geological knowledge existed to figure out what they were. (The first being Chile in 1960.)
    - frik 12y ago
      For the destroyed building yes. But they built a newer taller building right next to it - that's the one in linked article.
      - wtbob 12y ago
        > But they built a newer taller building right next to it - that's the one in linked article. I think that building also dates back to the war.
runjake 12y ago
You can virtually drive through the infamous train tunnel in Google Street View: http://goo.gl/g1p9Kj http://goo.gl/g1p9Kj
- bduerst 12y ago
  Here's a better link: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Portage+Glacier+Hwy,+Chugach+National+Forest,+Alaska/@60.7889961,-148.804294,3a,75y,112.63h,100.73t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sWUD-NRiFTmMrntA8gilTyA!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x56c80cabf53a711d:0x40c2084a18e3f6ba https://www.google.com/maps/place/Portage+Glacier+Hwy,+Chuga...
philrenaud 12y ago
Real-life fallout 3?
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jonknee 12y ago
And even then you could get home grown weed: > A pot bust on the tenth floor led to the police donating hydroponic equipment to Whittier’s school for a vegetable garden, which Joey Lipscomb oversaw through eighth grade. Amazing.
krebby 12y ago
A good friend of mine just finished up a year and a half of living and photographing in Whittier. She has a few amazing photos here: http://documentarystudies.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/city-under-one-roof-by-jen-kinney.original.pdf http://documentarystudies.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/city-... The stories I've heard about this town are wild
- wcauchois 12y ago
  That was pretty cool.
dynjo 12y ago
Reminds me of Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions
- jimmcslim 12y ago
  Beigich and Chungking are both perhaps proto-arcologies (although far less utopic than most arcologies are envisioned).
UhUhUhUh 12y ago
Bigger and utopic. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LS6MOZY http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LS6MOZY
yummybear 12y ago
Kind of reminds me of Peach Trees from the Judge Dredd movie - though more cheerful mind you.
thekevan 12y ago
Zillow lists possibly 4 homes for sale. (It says 5 but I think one is a duplicate.) As well as the tower which others mentioned, apparently there also a condo called Whittier Manor. http://www.zillow.com/homes/whittier-ak_rb/ http://www.zillow.com/homes/whittier-ak_rb/
bitwize 12y ago
Wow, it's like a stationary Snowpiercer.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
bkeroack 12y ago
This article inspired me to browse Google Maps around the area. Surprisingly I found this US/Canada border crossing that is completely unguarded: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dawson,+YT,+Canada/@62.6150141,-141.0008213,3a,75y,174.12h,75.89t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s421FPv4qhRXmE2YBKnq-DQ!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x5148e3cbd4f5b5b7:0x4a8d7ab95cad1ffd https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dawson,+YT,+Canada/@62.615... Literally just signs by the side of the road. Even the Top of the World Highway has a Customs inspection shack (which is farther north and seemingly more remote).
- JeremyMorgan 12y ago
  Imagine getting a flat tire in that spot and not having a spare..
  - mipapage 12y ago
    Related: I worked as a geologist in the area and our helicopter ran out of fuel while doing some recon far from civilisation. Imagine our surprise when we spotted a 4x4 with a fuel tank below us, out in the middle of nowhere (more or less). We landed on the dirt road next to the truck, fuelled up enough to get back to the base and had a good laugh + beer to end the day.
- eastbayjake 12y ago
  Oh contraire, mon frere... the US inspection station is just down the road about 300 yards: https://www.google.com/maps/@62.6195443,-141.0060633,3a,75y,97.67t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sMzqjlCvL8Ca11vFx3iB2oA!2e0 https://www.google.com/maps/@62.6195443,-141.0060633,3a,75y,...
Cilike88 12y ago
Beautiful photographs, would love to see a documentary about this!

673 points by samclemens 12y ago

gmoore 12y ago

There's a TV series in that for sure!

tsuresh 12y ago

Reminds me of the film Snowpiercer.

kayge 12y ago

I live in Alaska and have visited Whittier multiple times. Every time we go, my wife and I comment about how great of a setting it would be for a zombie apocalypse movie. "Oh it's only accessible by water or the main tunnel, it's easy to secure" "oops we forgot about securing the old train tunnel" "oh no they're in the apartment building, let's go hide out in the creepy old abandoned building down the street" ... clearly I'm not going to be writing the screenplay, but the location has a lot of potential!

percept 12y ago
"he has recently been in talks with two reality television production companies and the producers of a Gerard Butler submarine movie." http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittier-people-06/ http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittie... Not quite the same, I guess.
- fold 12y ago
  http://www.adn.com/article/20141212/big-budget-thriller-be-filmed-tiny-whittier-next-year http://www.adn.com/article/20141212/big-budget-thriller-be-f...
pcthrowaway 12y ago
It would be a great place to hold out with a large group if you had a way to obtain and import supplies and you cleared the building first. You'd probably be able to spot anyone coming or going (living or undead), and it would be likely that very few zombies would be in the surrounding land. Also, of course zombie fiction requires a major suspension of disbelief in this regard, but the damp/cold weather would cause the zombie bodies to freeze (at below zero) or decay faster (at above zero, though I suspect it is rarely if ever above zero)
- yourapostasy 12y ago
  The Whittier temperature averages [1] seem to indicate a 6-9 month period where highs are above freezing. That would make for some exciting daytime zombie interactions. By comparison, McMurdo Sound, Antarctica [2] does indeed appear to be below freezing on average the vast majority of the year. To hide out from the zombie hordes behind an impenetrable wall of freezing air, you would just have to set up shop at some place like Amundsen Scott South Pole Station, Antarctica [3]. Once the jet fuel (what they use for power) runs out though, it will get unpleasantly cold, fast. [1] http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/whittier/alaska/united-states/usak0266 http://www.usclimatedata.com/climate/whittier/alaska/united-... [2] http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=46698 http://www.weatherbase.com/weather/weather.php3?s=46698 [3] http://www.foresthillweather.com/PHP/Metar2/AntarcticaAverages.php http://www.foresthillweather.com/PHP/Metar2/AntarcticaAverag...
  - jdcarter 12y ago
    Antarctica doesn't need zombies, it already has Aliens and Predators doing battle down there. A continent can only take so much! (Apologies to those who missed the first AvP movie.)
- foobarian 12y ago
  Given that zombies usually don't obey the laws of thermodynamics, if I lived in a place like Whittier I'd probably try to harness them to some kind of hamster wheel driving a generator.
  - pcthrowaway 12y ago
    I don't think there's enough evidence to claim that zombies don't obey the laws of thermodynamics specifically. Perhaps zombie-ism transforms something in their core into a nuclear reactor that slowly converts atoms into a near-endless supply of energy. It's apparent that they don't obey physical laws, but which ones specifically depends on your interpretation.
- stormbrew 12y ago
  Contrary to popular belief, while temperatures do go down on average as you go further north, the really pronounced difference is how much it varies between its extremes. Realize that in the summer in these northern places, the sun is shining (or at least in twilight) past midnight, and comes back up very early in the morning, only a handful of hours later [1]. It actually gets quite warm [2]. [1] http://www.alaska.org/weather/daylight-hours/whittier/june http://www.alaska.org/weather/daylight-hours/whittier/june [2] http://weatherspark.com/averages/33093/6/Whittier-Alaska-United-States http://weatherspark.com/averages/33093/6/Whittier-Alaska-Uni...

Kiro 12y ago

I wouldn't mind living there. I've been dreaming about moving somewhere remote and just do freelance work. The only requirement is a good internet connection which sadly excludes a lot of cool places.

sanoli 12y ago
The thing is, this town is not only remote, but during the winter you have to pretty much dug in and stay inside. No going anywhere. It's not the same as just being somewhere isolated and remote, and you have to take that into consideration. Some people might enjoy it anyway.
- grecy 12y ago
  > and stay inside Huh? Why would you stay inside when you live in such a beautiful place? I live in the Yukon - it's -37C today and it's absolutely beautiful outside. I rode to work today, and just did a 1 hour round trip walk to the library to drop off some books. I'll go for a ~2 hour snow shoe tonight in the dark with my headlamp. I saw the Northern Lights last night, so I'll take my camera tonight. Winter is actually the most beautiful season - the snow is so clean and bright, and the sun shines off all the ice crystals so beautifully. It was cold this day - http://theroadchoseme.com/mendenhall-glacier-juneau-alaska http://theroadchoseme.com/mendenhall-glacier-juneau-alaska
  - seanmcdirmid 12y ago
    Reminds me of Harbin, on the bus trip from Changchun in the winter I watched the mercury fall from -20 to -35. It wasn't really that bad (my digital camera battery failed me at the ice sculptures, however).
    - grecy 12y ago
      Yesterday I drove 1225km from British Colombia to my home in the Yukon. I started the day at -5C, saw it hit -39C on the drive and finished at -36C. It was the most beautiful blue-sky sunny day and sunset. The full moon, Northern Lights and herd of Caribou helped too :)

sanoli 12y ago

And I lived in a city with about 14 million people, where one building had about 3 thousand people living in it (it has its own zip code). So different it made me want to visit this town in Alaska.

megatroll 12y ago

It would be interesting to see what these people do for a living. Why are they there? There are children, so there must be families who have decided to move there.

haroldp 12y ago
It's a good port. Alaska depends on tons of stuff shipped in from other places. The Alcan is a pretty shitty drive for trucking stuff up. Alaska's biggest city is a very poor port, and second biggest city is inland, so freight comes in on barges through Whittier, and then around the state via the railroad. Anchorage elites park their boats in Whittier's small boat harbor. In the summers, fishing and tourism are big.
rukittenme 12y ago
I imagine fishing, oil and gas, and Alaska's (edit) $2,000 stipend for residents is what keeps them there.
- ceejayoz 12y ago
  Given Alaska's high cost of living, that $2k doesn't make much of a dent.
- rockdiesel 12y ago
  Are you referring to the Alaska Permanent Fund? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund#Annual_individual_payout http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alaska_Permanent_Fund#Annual_in... If so, it's not a $2,000 stipend and it's only been $2,000 once since it's inception. Or is there another stipend you're referring to?
matthewdavis 12y ago
>In summer, cruise ships, charter boats, and commercial fishing vessels bring thousands of visitors to Whittier’s harbor on the west side of Prince William Sound. Sounds like tourism is a large portion of income.
- 12y ago

onezeno 12y ago

I googled the location, expecting it to be in the far north of Alaska, given the description. But it's just southeast of Anchorage. Is the weather really that much worse?

turk- 12y ago
Microclimates: "Anchorage climate similar to northern Midwest Now let’s talk about the winters. The truth is, they aren’t as bad as myth would have it. Anchorage actually has a warmer climate than other cold-weather cities like Chicago or Minneapolis because it’s on the ocean. Southeast Alaska stays relatively warm for the same reason. The Interior, however, does get very cold. Without the regulating influence of the ocean, temperatures in interior locations like Fairbanks can drop to minus-30 for weeks at a time (though it’s a dry cold, which doesn’t feel as cold as it sounds). Just remember that temperature is microclimate in Alaska. No matter where you are, a one- or two-hour drive in any direction can result in a 30-degree temperature change." "Abundant snow creates winter wonderland Likewise, there’s a large variation in snowfall across the state. An average of 79 inches of snow falls on Anchorage every year (the same amount as Burlington, Vermont). But Talkeetna, only two hours north, gets considerably more snow due to the higher elevation, and Alyeska — just an hour from Anchorage — receives an average of 178 inches annually!" http://www.alaska.net/weather.html http://www.alaska.net/weather.html
haroldp 12y ago
I grew up there! The weather is a lot different than Anchorage. Anchorage is colder. Whittier gets a TON more precipitation. The Army actually built Whittier during WWII because it was a good deepwater port (ironically, Anchorage has huge tides that make it a horrible anchorage) that was always overcast, making it hard, they thought, for the Japanese to bomb.
cossatot 12y ago
I was there doing some geology this May, and one of the AK geol. survey guys mentioned that the previous summer, some of his colleagues were working directly across the fjord on the hillside on a clear, sunny day. A snowstorm sprang up pretty suddenly and they got stranded for several days. IIRC one of them had a little deployable shelter but the other had to hide under some boulders. As a side note, Whittier has a huge tsunami risk, not from typical undersea earthquakes but because the mountainside on the north side of Whittier Sound is unstable and some very big blocks of rock (100s of m) are slowly breaking off from the bedrock. If (when) these fall, they could create a pretty massive wave that could devastate the town. [1] [1]: http://137.229.113.30/webpubs/dggs/ri/text/ri2011_007a.pdf http://137.229.113.30/webpubs/dggs/ri/text/ri2011_007a.pdf edit: added tsunami info

ehmorris 12y ago

Photographer has more photos here: http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittier-location-02/ http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittie... Also the full version of the article in OP's link

megablast 12y ago
There are some great images here: http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Whittier.htm http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Whittier.htm This one gives a great aerial view of the town: http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Aerial_Photos_Whittier.htm http://www.wildnatureimages.com/Aerial_Photos_Whittier.htm It is one huge parking lot.
- collyw 12y ago
  Wow, it looks stunning in summer (not the town, but the surroundings).

neals 12y ago

Funny how that works. I saw somebody mention this city in a thread on Reddit yesterday. He talked about visiting somebody there and having to wait 1.5 hours because the one-way-tunnel changes "direction" every 2 hours...

_delirium 12y ago

This arrangement looks a lot better than the norm in that area. The typical 200-person remote Alaskan town is more of a shantytown, a depressing collection of low-quality single-story shacks. This at least looks like solid construction, probably more weatherproof than the norm, and with some indoor community spaces. Seems like a decent solution for such a town, in the rare case where the capital to build such a building is available (in this case it was only because the U.S. military built it).

deleted 12y ago
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Turing_Machine 12y ago
Whittier isn't anything like "remote" by Alaska standards. It's on the rail system and (now) the road system. Most Alaska towns and villages aren't.

lucaspiller 12y ago

This article makes it sound like some remote wilderness where you would freeze instantly when you go outside. The climate there (according to wikipedia) isn't that cold, right now it's -12c with a high of 3c over the next few days - there are plenty of European cities with colder climates. Still an interesting place none the less. They have an official website with more details: http://begichtowers.com/ http://begichtowers.com/ - there is a unit for sale for $40k if anyone is interested :D

CanSpice 12y ago
The full article (http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittier-location-02/ http://reedyoung.com/project/whittier-alaska/r-young-whittie...) has this to say about the weather: > The first thing we noticed when we arrived in Whittier was the wind—we were barely out of the car when a powerful gust pushed us down the hill. People in Whittier get out of their cars carefully; the wind has been known to shatter windshields and bend car doors backwards. Because the weather can be so extreme, kids often walk to school via an underground tunnel. The town averages around 250 inches of snow annually, but some recent years have seen closer to 400 inches. Two winters ago the snowdrifts near Whittier School were piled so high that the principal let students go outside to take pictures of one another hanging from a street lamp.
grecy 12y ago
Coastal Alaska isn't nearly as cold as everyone thinks. The ocean keeps it mild. It snows a lot, and it's often windy, but the actual temperature is rarely below ~ -20C. I'm in the Yukon, away from the ocean. I rode my bike to work at -37C this morning :)
- seanmcdirmid 12y ago
  My mom grew up in the panhandle (Ketchikan) which rarely even sees snow, I guess (but lots of rain).
  - grecy 12y ago
    That's a LONG way South of me :)

noobermin 12y ago

It would be interesting if someone tried this in one of these larger cities with high rises like Singapore. You'd create a smaller groups with a sense of community while still giving members the benefits of living in a large city. The reason I thought of this is it reminded me of a strategy of using small bible study groups being employed in a large church that was part of my alma mater. The idea is that it was easier and more intimate in these small groups, so they'd have the ability to hold more personal sutdy sessions. Of course, they still belonged to the main body and had those advantages, such as a larger number of volunteers, etc. Something like that could create the "small town atmosphere" many city dwellers seek without destroying the city.

erroneousfunk 12y ago
This is essentially what college campuses do already, to some extent. My current apartment complex also hosts activities, movie nights, brings in nurses so residents can meet and ask about health problems. This is in addition to the playground, tennis/basketball court, computer room, gym, small theater, and other amenities that help to create a "community" atmosphere. Also, I think a big reason this model is so "successful" is that people don't have much of an alternative. Really, would you _prefer_ to go to that sketchy-looking grocery store with the mayonnaise next to the cereal, if you had the choice of going a few blocks to a large supermarket? To be honest, I've never spent any time using my own apartment's amenities. I live in the city, because I want to be with people like me, not because I want forced socialization with people who just happen to live together.
- tracker1 12y ago
  I live in the city, because I want to be with people like me, not because I want forced socialization with people who just happen to live together. That just sounds like a contradiction...
  - marssaxman 12y ago
    Only if you assume that physical proximity is the most significant attribute two people can have in common! Aside from my housemates, I don't know so much as the first name of any other person on my block; but I live here because dozens of my friends live within a mile of my house.

farslan 12y ago

This video is about a Teacher who lives in that building. It's really cool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naPguX84Amg http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naPguX84Amg

uslic001 12y ago

We took an Alaskan cruise last year on Princess. We left from Vancouver and our last port of call was in Whittier. Then we had to take our turn going through the train/car tunnel to Anchorage for our flight home. If you mistime your ride through the tunnel you can miss your flight. We had a really late flight so we had no problems.

adouzzy 12y ago

It sounds like emacs to me. Pure awesomeness.

rapidally 12y ago

Why is this on hackernews? Stick to tech.

mod 12y ago
Because I, a hacker and the target audience of Hacker News, find it very, very interesting.
- theoh 12y ago
  It's not one of Eric S. Raymond's talking points, but the backwoodsman aspect of hacker culture seems really important, and also, probably, fatal to its long-term spread.
  - lmm 12y ago
    How do you reconcile that with so much of hackerdom being in and around San Francisco (and a lot of the remainder being MIT)?
    - theoh 12y ago
      Well, first of all it's not a geographical description. The nature of "hacking", which is a self-reliant activity of producing provisional solutions, has a lot in common with the ethos of life in remote areas or on a frontier. Even the word hacking evokes chopping firewood or doing some other woodwork task in a rough, ad-hoc way. This is combined with a sense of mutual aid which is often present even in (maybe especially in) thinly-populated areas. Gabriella Coleman might be a good source for more insight into this. Just why hacker communities behave as if they are isolated even in an urban environment is not something I understand, but from personal experience they are self-selected groups of people with particular traits, who often have difficulty being accepted by mainstream culture, or who scorn the mainstream. I haven't read Coleman's book, but it is available here: http://gabriellacoleman.org/Coleman-Coding-Freedom.pdf http://gabriellacoleman.org/Coleman-Coding-Freedom.pdf (When Dijkstra talked about "coding bums" in relation to APL, he didn't mean that they would be drinking and sleeping rough...)

Coincoin 12y ago

This reminds me of Fermont[1], a remote Canadian city in northern Quebec that I visited when I was young. There is this 1.3 km long building shaped like a wall with all services, shops, restaurants and apartments in it. The wall protects the rest of the city from northern winds. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermont https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermont

arethuza 12y ago
Also reminds me of some French ski resorts - I think Tignes Le Lac has one huge long building, one of the area of La Plagne as well.
- palunon 12y ago
  I think you're referring to the Plagne Aime 2000 main building. It's nowhere near 1km long tough http://images.dunordausud.fr/HIVER/plagneaime/station/plagneaime1.jpg http://images.dunordausud.fr/HIVER/plagneaime/station/plagne...

haroldp 12y ago

W00h! I grew up in Whittier, AK. Ask me Anything! Haha, seriously, I moved to Whittier at the age of 2 in 1974 and lived there until 1986. The big change there since I left has been the tunnel. When I was there you had to drive your car up onto a railroad flatcar (and pay a steep ticket price) to get out. Anchorage is only 55 miles away, but really it's two mountains away. The railroad sold passenger service only as a requirement of the state and prioritized it behind freight. Between that, avalanches and assorted weather problems, you could wait hours and hours for a train. Winter service wasn't even daily, back then. We didn't even have cable. Just PBS and one channel that mixed shows from the three big networks. It was strange. Yes, most residents live in one big 14 story high-rise in rural Alaska. I most definitely do not miss it. I recommend this book if you want more info: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578331919/ http://www.amazon.com/dp/1578331919/

alandarev 12y ago
I will grasp this amazing opportunity and flood you with these questions: 1. Why the town even exists? Article tells nothing about its purpose. 2. What are the most jobs? Is there any production? 3. How did it feel to live in such a small community?
- Someone1234 12y ago
  I can answer #1 it is a major cruise port. Many Alaskan cruises start in Whittier. If you ever take an Alaska cruise you'll likely take the train into Whittier then get on the ship without spending a lot of time there. It is a town of only 200 some odd people.
- keevie 12y ago
  Actually it was built in WW2 after the japanese attacked the Aleutian Islands---the Americans were desperate to be able to defend US soil, and Whittier was perfect from a military standpoint: constantly clouded over (some insane number of days a year they get precipitation) deepwater port, surrounded by mountains.
- haroldp 12y ago
  > 1. Why the town even exists? OK, history/geography lesson... The Kenai peninsula hangs down into the Gulf of Alaska and sort of separates those two areas. The landscape around there is very mountainous. However, Whittier has a low mountain pass to "easily" travel between Passage Canal (not an actual canal) on the east side to Turnigan Arm and Anchorage (more of a muddy tentacle) on the West side. Portage Pass was where natives would portage their kayaks through there back in the day, and European explorers adopted the route. Fast forward to World War II, and the US Army developed the site into a town, building pretty much everything bigger than a shack that you see there today. The Japanese were taking US islands in the Aleutians, and we needed to be able to get war materiel up there. You can't take it directly to Anchorage because it's a horrible port, with huge tides. So the Army built two big docks and a tank farm for petrolium. They connected it to Anchorage with a railroad. Unforunately, the old native portage was over Portage Glacier, and impassable in the summer. So they built one of the longest tunnels in the world through the mountains (also a second quite long tunnel). After WWII built Whittier's big residential buildings, Beggich Towers pictured in the article and the abandoned, Buckner Building. The Army pulled out of Whittier in the 50s, only a few short years after the two big buildings were built. Whittier survives as a town today as a port, and on top of that Army infrastructure. > 2. What are the most jobs? Is there any production? Most of the jobs are at the port, the railroad and the tank farm. In the summer, there's fishing and tourism. Everything else pretty much hangs off those. > 3. How did it feel to live in such a small community? I hated it. Other people liked it. Imagine having 0-4 other kids in your grade. Those are all of your friends. Pick your best friend and your girl friend from that pool. The weather was shit. Summer was SHORT and muddy. Winter was long and DARK. Absolutely everyone is absolutely all up in your business all the time. The views were real nice when it wasn't raining or snowing. It was usually raining or snowing. Opportunities for doing anything beyond school or work were pretty narrow.

jdimov 12y ago

Kowloon of the west :)

NinjaTime 12y ago

Hell most jails in the U.S dwarf this complex. Dear lord I hope an EMP never hits any of those towns. Sure hope the gov hasn't taken away the ability to protect yourself.

darkstar999 12y ago
...what?
ceejayoz 12y ago
To my knowledge, EMP has killed precisely zero people in human history. I'd be curious as to why you think people living in a high-rise can't defend themselves.
- pluma 12y ago
  Probably because an EMP would fry most electric devices? I'm not sure it would affect the heating (there's likely electricity involved, but I'm not sure how an EMP might affect it precisely), but the GP might have thought along those lines.
  - ceejayoz 12y ago
    An EMP means we're at nuclear war with a superpower, and Alaskans likely defend themselves with guns, not lasers.
    - palunon 12y ago
      So the nuclear superpower at war with america thinks "Hey, should I launch this ICBM on LA or on this 200 people building in the middle of nowhere ?"
pluma 12y ago
I think Alaskans would be able to defend themselves just fine. As far as I know they ride bears to work and eat raw fish. My sources may not be perfectly accurate all the time, though.

hownottowrite 12y ago

Whittier is also home to the Buckner Building. 250k square feet, abandoned after the 1964 earthquake and left to rot. In other words, a perfect place for indoor skiing. http://vimeo.com/50860740 http://vimeo.com/50860740

pizza 12y ago
wow
frik 12y ago
Why do they build such tall buildings in an earth quake area? Why is such an destroyed inhabited building still around 50 years later? In other parts of the world there would be many smaller buildings and inhabited ugly buildings would be removed. I like the creative use of the building in the video, great work!
- btilly 12y ago
  Why do they build such tall buildings in an earth quake area? The basic answer is that they had no idea what kind of earthquake was possible there. That earthquake is #3 on the list at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes#Largest_earthquakes_by_magnitude http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lists_of_earthquakes#Largest_ea... and was the second megathrust earthquake recorded since the geological knowledge existed to figure out what they were. (The first being Chile in 1960.)
  - frik 12y ago
    For the destroyed building yes. But they built a newer taller building right next to it - that's the one in linked article.
    - wtbob 12y ago
      > But they built a newer taller building right next to it - that's the one in linked article. I think that building also dates back to the war.

runjake 12y ago

You can virtually drive through the infamous train tunnel in Google Street View: http://goo.gl/g1p9Kj http://goo.gl/g1p9Kj

bduerst 12y ago
Here's a better link: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Portage+Glacier+Hwy,+Chugach+National+Forest,+Alaska/@60.7889961,-148.804294,3a,75y,112.63h,100.73t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sWUD-NRiFTmMrntA8gilTyA!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x56c80cabf53a711d:0x40c2084a18e3f6ba https://www.google.com/maps/place/Portage+Glacier+Hwy,+Chuga...

philrenaud 12y ago

Real-life fallout 3?

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

jonknee 12y ago

And even then you could get home grown weed: > A pot bust on the tenth floor led to the police donating hydroponic equipment to Whittier’s school for a vegetable garden, which Joey Lipscomb oversaw through eighth grade. Amazing.

krebby 12y ago

A good friend of mine just finished up a year and a half of living and photographing in Whittier. She has a few amazing photos here: http://documentarystudies.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/city-under-one-roof-by-jen-kinney.original.pdf http://documentarystudies.duke.edu/uploads/media_items/city-... The stories I've heard about this town are wild

wcauchois 12y ago
That was pretty cool.

dynjo 12y ago

Reminds me of Chungking Mansions in Hong Kong http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chungking_Mansions

jimmcslim 12y ago
Beigich and Chungking are both perhaps proto-arcologies (although far less utopic than most arcologies are envisioned).

UhUhUhUh 12y ago

Bigger and utopic. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LS6MOZY http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00LS6MOZY

yummybear 12y ago

Kind of reminds me of Peach Trees from the Judge Dredd movie - though more cheerful mind you.

thekevan 12y ago

Zillow lists possibly 4 homes for sale. (It says 5 but I think one is a duplicate.) As well as the tower which others mentioned, apparently there also a condo called Whittier Manor. http://www.zillow.com/homes/whittier-ak_rb/ http://www.zillow.com/homes/whittier-ak_rb/

bitwize 12y ago

Wow, it's like a stationary Snowpiercer.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

bkeroack 12y ago

This article inspired me to browse Google Maps around the area. Surprisingly I found this US/Canada border crossing that is completely unguarded: https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dawson,+YT,+Canada/@62.6150141,-141.0008213,3a,75y,174.12h,75.89t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1s421FPv4qhRXmE2YBKnq-DQ!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x5148e3cbd4f5b5b7:0x4a8d7ab95cad1ffd https://www.google.com/maps/place/Dawson,+YT,+Canada/@62.615... Literally just signs by the side of the road. Even the Top of the World Highway has a Customs inspection shack (which is farther north and seemingly more remote).

JeremyMorgan 12y ago
Imagine getting a flat tire in that spot and not having a spare..
- mipapage 12y ago
  Related: I worked as a geologist in the area and our helicopter ran out of fuel while doing some recon far from civilisation. Imagine our surprise when we spotted a 4x4 with a fuel tank below us, out in the middle of nowhere (more or less). We landed on the dirt road next to the truck, fuelled up enough to get back to the base and had a good laugh + beer to end the day.
eastbayjake 12y ago
Oh contraire, mon frere... the US inspection station is just down the road about 300 yards: https://www.google.com/maps/@62.6195443,-141.0060633,3a,75y,97.67t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sMzqjlCvL8Ca11vFx3iB2oA!2e0 https://www.google.com/maps/@62.6195443,-141.0060633,3a,75y,...

Cilike88 12y ago

Beautiful photographs, would love to see a documentary about this!