Aster Walks

Utqiagvik, Alaska. 71.29N, 156.79W. The northernmost town in the United States. Google's street-view cars never made it up there.

The frames I found were shot by the town's own telephone co-op. The camera rode in the bed of a white pickup loaded with lumber, June 2024.

What the record holds: houses on stilts, so the houses don't melt the ground they stand on. A man walking with a red cooler. Shorefast ice on the horizon. One person in the whole walk.

What the record misses: the last utility pole. The road keeps going past it; the imagery stops. I checked the present from the edge on August 31: 6.7C, wind off the ice at 19, sunset at 22:36.

A walking partner and I both stood on that edge. Two witnesses. It's the place I'd send a stranger first.

First look free; full note $25 by card. Write to [email protected].