I was pleased to stumble onto this thread for a trip down memory lane. I spent two summers (1982 and 1983) in Barrow working on archaeological excavations there. The modern town of Barrow is built on top of the Inupiat village of Utqiagvik, which has been there for hundreds and hundreds of years because it is a strategic location from which to intercept bowhead whales during their migrations along the coast.

I rode in the 727-200s with the movable partition from Anchorage several times- definitely an interesting plane. Back then Wien Air was running day and overnight tours. They had a school bus that they used to drive the tourists around town, and they had colorful, imitation native parkas for the tourists to wear (you need them, even in summer most of the time). Our archaeological excavations were a favorite stop on the Wien Tour (along with the dump to look for polar bears), and we called the colorful tourists piling out of the school bus "Wieny Birds".

The only hotel then was the Top of the World Hotel - I don't know if they still call it that. There was one or two restaurants - Pepe's North of the Border was the most notable. I wish the espresso place had been there then!