The Community
Captain F.W. Beechey named the inlet in 1826 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 1998 close to 649 and a work force near 374. Ninety percent of the residents are Inupiat Eskimo. The private sector is larger in Wainwright than most other villages; approximately 55 percent of the work force is employed by private businesses, mostly the village and regional corporations. The Borough employs close to 29 percent of the work force, is the School District employs another 11.7 percent.

Wainwright's subsistence hunting is based primarily on whales and caribou. Local arts and crafts include carved ivory figurines and jewelry, baleen boats, whalebone carvings, clocks, knitted caps and gloves.

Quality of Life
The North Slope Borough provides public electricity, and maintains a water/sewer treatment facility, which includes a Laundromat.Most households have running water and flush toilets. The Borough also 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 public safety office, 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, which are 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 the 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
P.O. Box 9
Wainwright, AK 99782
(907)763-2815