Rogers-Post Site

In the 1930s, actor and author Will Rogers was one of the most famous people in America.  A fan of aviation, he befriended well-known pilot Wiley Post, and in 1935 they set out on a tour of Alaska.  On August 16th, they left to fly from Fairbanks to Point Barrow, the northernmost point in the US.  Towards the end of the trip, they encountered poor visibility but were able to land at Walakpa Bay, 11 miles south of the town of Barrow (today called Utqiagvik).  There they met a group of Iñupiat Alaskan natives, who gave them directions.  With their course set, Rogers and Post took off again, but after climbing only 50 feet, the plane’s engine died, and they crashed into the lagoon.  When news of their deaths reached the rest of America, there was a period of national mourning.  Three years later, a cement monument was built near the site of the crash.  15 years later in 1953, a 72-year-old man named Jesse Stubbs claimed to be a childhood friend of Rogers, and built his own monument next to the original monument.  This had to be relocated to Utqiagvik in 2016 due to coastal erosion at the Walakpa Bay.  Today, the original monument still stands, but is very difficult to access.  There is no road to Walakpa Bay, but during certain times of the year it is possible to reach the site by boat, or by driving along the beach from Utqiagvik.  The town of Utqiagvik itself is difficult to access.  The farthest north town in the United States, it is not accessible by road, and can only be reached by plane.  Despite the inaccessibility of the crash site monument, the names of Rogers and Post are memorialized in the name of Utqiagvik’s airport, Wiley Post-Will Rogers Memorial Airport.