Welcome to Kotzebue

This is the first post of my trip to Alaska! I left Denver on Jan 15 to start my new adventure. I stopped in Anchorage for 3 days then off to Kotzebue for work.

Kotzebue is a small village in above the Artic circle.

Kotzebue gets its name from the Kotzebue Sound, which was named after Otto von Kotzebue, who explored the sound while searching for the Northwest Passage in the service of Russia in 1818.

Kotzebue is located at 66°53′50″N, 162°35′8″W (66.897192, -162.585444)GR1.
Kotzebue lies on a gravel spit at the end of the Baldwin Peninsula in the Kotzebue Sound. It is 53 km (33 miles) north of the arctic circle on Alaska's western coast.
There is archaeological evidence that Inupiat people have lived at Kotzebue since at least the 1400s. Because of its location, Kotzebue was a trading and gathering center for the entire area. The Noatak, Selawik and Kobuk Rivers drain into the Kotzebue Sound near Kotzebue to form a center for transportation to points inland. In addition to people from interior villages, inhabitants of the Russian Far East came to trade at Kotzebue. Furs, seal-oil, hides, rifles, ammunition, and seal skins were some of the items traded. People also gathered for competitions like the current World Eskimo Olympics [1]. With the arrival of the whalers, traders, gold seekers, and missionaries the trading center expanded.
Kotzebue, known natively as Kikiktagruk or Qikiqtagruk, which means "almost an island" in Inupiaq, the language of the Inupiat, which is a reference to the spit. The name of the town was later changed to Kotzebue after the name of the Kotzebue Sound.
Reindeer herding was introduced in the area in 1897. Although Alaska had caribou, the wild form of reindeer, the domesticated reindeer were brought to Alaska from Asia.
A United States post office was established in 1899.
Kotzebue is currently the largest city in the Northwest Arctic Borough.

Kotzebue is a town of about 3000, mostly native. For more info on the town go to http://kotzpdweb.tripod.com/kotzlinks.html.

I moved in with Joel and his wife Amy and am working for the fire department as a paramedic and training officer. I met Joel in Antarctica. He works at the fire house also. Amy is a teacher for the school district.

We live in an appartment where we pay 120o/month. This includes water, trash and heat. The phone is $29/month, cable $90/month. Everything up here is more expensive than in the "lower 48".

In the store milk is $7.59/gal, bread $4.99/loaf, eggs $3.19 for 12 eggs, bottle of coke $2.25 and fresh produce is bananas $2.19/lb, oranges $3.13/lb, apples $2.19/lb, lettice 2.68/lb. To help out with the costs we order food from Fred Meyer in Anchorage and have it shipped via mail to our P.O. Box. This cuts the cost quite a bit. Bread from Fred Meyer is $2.99 loaf and they charge about 26% to ship. They do not ship produce so we have to pay the costs at the local store.

Here are a few images from the town.

On the weekends, highschool basketball is the place to be. Joel coaches the boys team and Amy coaches the cheerleaders.

So far so good!