Russ asked Caudle if he could pay with his American Express card, Caudle repeated the question. From the grimace it was clear to Weston he had been rebuked. Barrow was a cash-only town.
In a place where some things, like construction, can cost up to a hundred times more than in the Lower 48, Oran realized the Top of the World was an outright bargain with rates only three times more expensive than those charged for a similar one-and-a-half star roadside motel in the Lower 48. In part, the motel kept costs down because it stood on stilts above the frozen ground. Instead of digging an entire foundation, the construction crew saved millions of dollars by drilling holes just large enough for the stilts. The newly refurbished thirty-five-room Top of the World Hotel was by far the biggest of the three motels in town. North Slope lodging at its finest.
The Top of the World was one of the first businesses to hook up to the $300 million Utilidor municipal water system started in the early 1980s. Because of the arduousness and expense of the project, only about half of Barrowâs homes were able to take part in the Arctic miracle of indoor plumbing. It was by far the most expensive and sophisticated water system ever built. Never before had such an ambitious construction project been undertaken in the Arctic. Special graphite pipes carried waste and drinking water thirty feet below the ground in tunnels that could not simply be dug into the ground. They had to be dynamited through the permafrost.
The tunnels were so deep to prevent the permafrost from thawing and the pipes from freezing. If the permafrost did melt, the buildings above it would collapse into a morass of sinking earth. Oran asked Russ if he wanted to join him after the news for some tacos next door at Pepeâs North of the Border. Mexican food 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle? Preferring indigestion to starvation, Russ agreed to go along. After Caudle checked Russ in at the hotel, it was nearly time for NBC Nightly News . Caudle wasnât about to miss his debut on national television. There was a big television set in the small but tidy lobby of the Top of the World.
It was already a little past six. KTUU tape-delayed the newscast so that it aired at 6:30 P.M. throughout the state. The Aurora I satellite beamed the Anchorage stations to all Alaskan villages as part of the statewide Rural Alaska Television Network, known as RATNET.
Oran went next door to Pepeâs to excitedly announce to folks milling about the lobby that Barrow âwas going nationwide.â As the newscast progressed, more and more people gathered around the set. The programâs first and second blocks reported on the presidential campaign. The third segment was devoted to the Middle East, and the strategic arms talks between the U.S. and USSR in Geneva, but nothing yet on the whales. Oran was starting to worry. He sure would be mighty embarrassed if, after all his boasting, the whales didnât make the news.
With Tom Brokawâs words âAnd finally tonight,â Oran Caudle exhaled a giant sigh of relief. Brokaw introduced the video by reading a sentence from the teleprompter. âIn Northern Alaska, winter comes early. And for three California gray whales it may have come too early this year.â With the words âgray whales,â the NBC technical director ordered the technician to âroll tape.â Oranâs first pictures flashed onto the screen of millions of television sets throughout the country. The audio engineer in the control room of NBCâs New York studio turned up the sound of the first whale struggling to breathe in the middle of the frozen Arctic Ocean.
In the few seconds it took for the zoomed-in lens to capture the whaleâs head coming out of the water and exhaling a lungful of air and water, the three trapped whales were no longer alone in the remote frozen waters off Barrow. They were now national news. Because of the
In a place where some things, like construction, can cost up to a hundred times more than in the Lower 48, Oran realized the Top of the World was an outright bargain with rates only three times more expensive than those charged for a similar one-and-a-half star roadside motel in the Lower 48. In part, the motel kept costs down because it stood on stilts above the frozen ground. Instead of digging an entire foundation, the construction crew saved millions of dollars by drilling holes just large enough for the stilts. The newly refurbished thirty-five-room Top of the World Hotel was by far the biggest of the three motels in town. North Slope lodging at its finest.
The Top of the World was one of the first businesses to hook up to the $300 million Utilidor municipal water system started in the early 1980s. Because of the arduousness and expense of the project, only about half of Barrowâs homes were able to take part in the Arctic miracle of indoor plumbing. It was by far the most expensive and sophisticated water system ever built. Never before had such an ambitious construction project been undertaken in the Arctic. Special graphite pipes carried waste and drinking water thirty feet below the ground in tunnels that could not simply be dug into the ground. They had to be dynamited through the permafrost.
The tunnels were so deep to prevent the permafrost from thawing and the pipes from freezing. If the permafrost did melt, the buildings above it would collapse into a morass of sinking earth. Oran asked Russ if he wanted to join him after the news for some tacos next door at Pepeâs North of the Border. Mexican food 320 miles north of the Arctic Circle? Preferring indigestion to starvation, Russ agreed to go along. After Caudle checked Russ in at the hotel, it was nearly time for NBC Nightly News . Caudle wasnât about to miss his debut on national television. There was a big television set in the small but tidy lobby of the Top of the World.
It was already a little past six. KTUU tape-delayed the newscast so that it aired at 6:30 P.M. throughout the state. The Aurora I satellite beamed the Anchorage stations to all Alaskan villages as part of the statewide Rural Alaska Television Network, known as RATNET.
Oran went next door to Pepeâs to excitedly announce to folks milling about the lobby that Barrow âwas going nationwide.â As the newscast progressed, more and more people gathered around the set. The programâs first and second blocks reported on the presidential campaign. The third segment was devoted to the Middle East, and the strategic arms talks between the U.S. and USSR in Geneva, but nothing yet on the whales. Oran was starting to worry. He sure would be mighty embarrassed if, after all his boasting, the whales didnât make the news.
With Tom Brokawâs words âAnd finally tonight,â Oran Caudle exhaled a giant sigh of relief. Brokaw introduced the video by reading a sentence from the teleprompter. âIn Northern Alaska, winter comes early. And for three California gray whales it may have come too early this year.â With the words âgray whales,â the NBC technical director ordered the technician to âroll tape.â Oranâs first pictures flashed onto the screen of millions of television sets throughout the country. The audio engineer in the control room of NBCâs New York studio turned up the sound of the first whale struggling to breathe in the middle of the frozen Arctic Ocean.
In the few seconds it took for the zoomed-in lens to capture the whaleâs head coming out of the water and exhaling a lungful of air and water, the three trapped whales were no longer alone in the remote frozen waters off Barrow. They were now national news. Because of the
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