Deadhorse is an

unincorporated community An unincorporated area is a region that is not governed by a local municipal corporation. Widespread unincorporated communities and areas are a distinguishing feature of the United States and Canada. Most other countries of the world either hav ...

located within the CDP of Prudhoe Bay in North Slope Borough,

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S ...

, United States, along the

North Slope North Slope can refer to: * Alaska North Slope, a region encompassing the northernmost part of the U.S. state of Alaska * North Slope Borough, Alaska, a borough in Alaska whose boundaries roughly coincide with that of the region * North Slope, Tac ...

near the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

. The town consists mainly of facilities for the workers and companies that operate at the nearby

Prudhoe Bay Oil Field Prudhoe Bay Oil Field is a large oil field on Alaska's North Slope. It is the largest oil field in North America, covering and originally containing approximately of oil.

. Deadhorse is accessible via the Dalton Highway from

Fairbanks Fairbanks is a home rule city and the borough seat of the Fairbanks North Star Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Fairbanks is the largest city in the Interior region of Alaska and the second largest in the state. The 2020 Census put the ...

, south, or Deadhorse Airport. Limited accommodation is also available for

tourists Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

. The permanent population is variously listed as being between 25 and 50 residents. Temporary residents (employed by various firms with local interests) can range as high as 3,000. Companies with facilities in Deadhorse service Prudhoe Bay, nearby

oil fields A petroleum reservoir or oil and gas reservoir is a subsurface accumulation of hydrocarbons contained in porous or fractured rock formations. Such reservoirs form when kerogen (ancient plant matter) is created in surrounding rock by the presenc ...

, and the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), which brings oil from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez on the south-central Alaska coast. Facilities in Deadhorse are built entirely on man-made gravel pads and usually consist of pre-fabricated modules shipped to Deadhorse via barge or air cargo.

History

The Prudhoe Bay, Alaska area was developed to house personnel, provide support for drilling operations, and transport oil to the

Alaskan pipeline The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) is an oil transportation system spanning Alaska, including the trans-Alaska crude-oil pipeline, 11 pump stations, several hundred miles of feeder pipelines, and the Valdez Marine Terminal. TAPS is one of ...

. Prior to 1977, oil seeps (small pores or fissure networks through which liquid petroleum emerges at the surface of the land) on the Arctic coastal plain had caught the attention of the U.S. petroleum interests. The high school is Dead Horse High School. The U.S. Navy drilled for oil between 1944 and 1953 with little success. However, in 1967, after several attempts at drilling for oil, oil company mergers, and competitive bidding for state lease sales, the

Prudhoe Bay oil field Prudhoe Bay Oil Field is a large oil field on Alaska's North Slope. It is the largest oil field in North America, covering and originally containing approximately of oil.

was discovered. Sources conflict on the origin of the area's name. The most cited theory appears to be that the area takes its name from a local business prominent in the late 1960s and 1970s, the "Dead Horse Haulers" trucking company. How the trucking company got its name remains in dispute.

Demographics

Deadhorse first appeared on the 1970 U.S. Census as an unincorporated village. It was made a census-designated place (CDP) in 1980. It appeared last on the 1990 census. After 2000, it was merged into the Prudhoe Bay CDP.

Tourism and wildlife

Tourists traveling to Deadhorse and Prudhoe Bay typically take tour buses from

via the

James Dalton Highway The James W. Dalton Highway, usually referred to as the Dalton Highway (and signed as Alaska Route 11), is a road in Alaska. It begins at the Elliott Highway, north of Fairbanks, and ends at Deadhorse (an unincorporated community within the ...

, a two-day journey with an overnight stop in Coldfoot. During the summer months, visitors can arrange for tours to the Arctic Ocean via a guided tour only. There is no longer any public Arctic Ocean access from Deadhorse. All tours must be booked 24 hours in advance to allow time for background checks on all passengers going through the oilfield check point. Tourists can also experience the

midnight sun The midnight sun is a natural phenomenon that occurs in the summer months in places north of the Arctic Circle or south of the Antarctic Circle, when the Sun remains visible at the local midnight. When the midnight sun is seen in the Arctic, ...

due to Deadhorse's location above the Arctic Circle. In winter, the opposite phenomenon,

polar night The polar night is a phenomenon where the nighttime lasts for more than 24 hours that occurs in the northernmost and southernmost regions of Earth. This occurs only inside the polar circles. The opposite phenomenon, the polar day, or midnig ...

, occurs. The area often features large herds of caribou and over 200 bird and

waterfowl Anseriformes is an order of birds also known as waterfowl that comprises about 180 living species of birds in three families: Anhimidae (three species of screamers), Anseranatidae (the magpie goose), and Anatidae, the largest family, which i ...

species, including geese, swans, gulls and eagles. Other indigenous wildlife include

Arctic fox The Arctic fox (''Vulpes lagopus''), also known as the white fox, polar fox, or snow fox, is a small fox native to the Arctic regions of the Northern Hemisphere and common throughout the Arctic tundra biome. It is well adapted to living in ...

es,

Arctic ground squirrel The Arctic ground squirrel (''Urocitellus parryii'') (Inuktitut: ''ᓯᒃᓯᒃ, siksik'') is a species of ground squirrel native to the Arctic and Subarctic of North America and Asia. People in Alaska, particularly around the Aleutians, refer to ...

grizzly bears The grizzly bear (''Ursus arctos horribilis''), also known as the North American brown bear or simply grizzly, is a population or subspecies of the brown bear inhabiting North America. In addition to the mainland grizzly (''Ursus arctos hor ...

polar bears The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear spec ...

, musk oxen, and

Arctic hare The Arctic hare (''Lepus arcticus'') is a species of hare highly adapted to living in the Arctic tundra and other icy biomes. The Arctic hare survives with shortened ears and limbs, a small nose, fat that makes up close to 20% of its body, and a ...

s. Because alcoholic beverages are not sold in Deadhorse, a humorous slogan for the town is "All that far and still no bar." The town serves as a start/end or turn-around point of several motorcycle-riding challenges offered by the Iron Butt Association. One of these, the Ultimate Coast to Coast, gives riders 30 days to travel between Deadhorse and

Key West Key West ( es, Cayo Hueso) is an island in the Straits of Florida, within the U.S. state of Florida. Together with all or parts of the separate islands of Dredgers Key, Fleming Key, Sunset Key, and the northern part of Stock Island, it con ...

(the southernmost city in the contiguous United States) in either direction.

Climate

Like all of the North Slope, Deadhorse features a cold and dry

tundra climate The tundra climate is a polar climate sub-type located in high latitudes and high mountains. undra climate https://www.britannica.com/science/tundra-climateThe Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2019 It is classified as ET according to Köppen ...

( Köppen ''ET''), as even the hottest month, July, has a daily average temperature of only , although Deadhorse reaches on average once every four years, Deadhorse averages four days per year where temperatures reaches at or above , since 1968 the only years that fail to reach that mark was 1972 and 1980. Precipitation is very light, averaging only , including only of snow – less snowfall than even the warmest places in the Alaska Panhandle like Ketchikan. The mean annual temperature is , with maximum temperatures reliably remaining below freezing from early/mid October to late April. As the area is located in

USDA Plant Hardiness Zone A hardiness zone is a geographic area defined as having a certain average annual minimum temperature, a factor relevant to the survival of many plants. In some systems other statistics are included in the calculations. The original and most wide ...

2, temperatures below can be expected during the height of winter. *Longest day: 63 days, 23 hours, 40 minutes (12:09 a.m. on May 20 to 11:18 p.m. on July 22) *Shortest day: 45 min (11:42 a.m. to 12:27 p.m. on November 24) *Longest night: 54 days, 22 hours, 51 min (12:27 p.m. on November 24 to 11:18 a.m. on January 18) *Shortest night: 26 min (11:43 p.m. on May 19 to 12:09 a.m. on May 20) *Highest recorded temperature: on 13 July 2016 *Lowest recorded temperature: on 27 January 1989 *Highest wind speed recorded: on 25 February 1989 *Official lowest

wind chill Wind chill or windchill (popularly wind chill factor) is the lowering of body temperature due to the passing-flow of lower-temperature air. Wind chill numbers are always lower than the air temperature for values where the formula is valid. When ...

: on 28 January 1989 (air temperature of ) and wind speed of

Health care

Deadhorse (including Prudhoe Bay) is classified as an isolated town/Sub-Regional Center. It is found in EMS Region 6A in the North Slope Region. Emergency Services have limited highway, coastal, and airport access. Emergency service is provided by paid EMS service and Fairweather Deadhorse Medical Clinic. Auxiliary health care is provided by oil company medical staff and the Greater Prudhoe Bay Fire Dept. Individuals requiring hospital care are usually transported to the nearest hospital/medical center, Sammuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital, in

Barrow, Alaska Utqiagvik ( ik, Utqiaġvik; , , formerly known as Barrow ()) is the borough seat and largest city of the North Slope Borough in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located north of the Arctic Circle, it is one of the northernmost cities and towns in the ...

. Because no roads connect Deadhorse to Barrow, individuals are transported by plane or helicopter (an approximately 45 minute flight).

In popular culture

Comic books

*A highly fictionalized version of Deadhorse, AK appears in the ''Deadhorse'' comic book series, by Eric Grissom, Phil Sloan, Marissa Louise, and David Halvorson.

Television

*Deadhorse is the subject of the second episode of ''

America's Toughest Jobs ''America's Toughest Jobs'' is a reality television show that lasted one season and aired on the American television network NBC. It pitted contestants against each other as they attempted a series of difficult and dangerous jobs. The prize wa ...

'' *Deadhorse is featured on the third through sixth seasons of ''

Ice Road Truckers ''Ice Road Truckers'' (commercially abbreviated ''IRT'') is a reality television series that premiered on History Channel, on June 17, 2007. It features the activities of drivers who operate trucks on seasonal routes crossing frozen lakes an ...

'', a

reality television Reality television is a genre of television programming that documents purportedly unscripted real-life situations, often starring unfamiliar people rather than professional actors. Reality television emerged as a distinct genre in the early 19 ...

series airing on the

History Channel History (formerly The History Channel from January 1, 1995 to February 15, 2008, stylized as HISTORY) is an American pay television network and flagship channel owned by A&E Networks, a joint venture between Hearst Communications and the Dis ...

; it dramatizes trucking on the Dalton Highway and often features truckers transporting equipment to the oil companies located in or around the Prudhoe Bay area. *It is briefly featured in the first, second, and third seasons of the BBC's '' Life Below Zero''. *It is featured in the first episode of the BBC's '' World's Most Dangerous Roads'' *It is featured in the '' X-Files'', season 2, episode 17: " End Game".

Image gallery

Deadhorse Sign.JPG, Sign at General Store, Deadhorse, Alaska (January 2008) General store, Deadhorse, Alaska (2003).jpg, Deadhorse General Store (2003) Dalton Highway facing south from Deadhorse.jpg, The Dalton Highway at Deadhorse (July 2010)

References

External links

Deadhorse Alaska website