About This File
FS2004 Scenery--Alaska North Slope 8; Barter Island PABA. The town of Barrow is in the far north of Alaska, and these are coastal villages or radar installations to the west, south, and now east of Barrow. Barter Island is a DEW station Air Force base 310 miles east of Barrow and 75 miles east of Bullen Point. The runway is just under 5,000 feet of gravel and aligned 06-24 on a spit of land at the northeast corner of the island. The big hangar is still there on the apron. Most of the DEW buildings have now been removed but this scenery is dated around 2005 when there were more of them. Between the DEW station and the airstrip is the village of Kaktovik, with a population of some 300 mainly traditional Inupiat. The village was first pioneered when the DEW station was built in the 1950's and grew as the years passed. The FS2004 error discovered when making this scenery was that FS2004 had mistakenly "placed" Kaktovik at Bullen Point (not physically, it was just stated as the local town); this is now only partly corrected as FS2004 refused to accept a Bullen Point revision but allowed the association of Kaktovik with Barter Island. Kaktovik is definitely on Barter Island. The next DEW station to the east is in Canada and called Komakuk; this has already been made and posted, long ago, and the next in this series will be far to the west. The AI has daily flights by ERA, plus Northern Air Cargo, and some GA. By Roger Wensley.