Deadhorse: a company town.

• Author: Barbour, Tracy
• Position: Towns in Transition - Brooks Range Supply

For nearly 13 years, Mike Kunkel has been working in the legendary place known as Deadhorse. Kunkel, an operations manager of Brooks Range Supply, works for two weeks and takes two weeks off. Then he heads home for Idaho until it's time to repeat the cycle.

Everyone does the two-week work cycle known as a "hitch." It's a demanding schedule. "You work every day you're here, 10- and 12-hour days," Kunkel says. "It's constant. You work 14 days in a row."

But the most challenging aspect of his job isn't the schedule, he says. It's the employees. "When people work every day for two weeks, they can get a little grouchy sometimes," says Kunkel, who manages about 20 workers at a time.

During rare moments of down time, Kunkel says he watches movies, otherwise, there's not much to do in Deadhorse. There are no theaters, bars or other places to relax, but there is a workout room and satellite TV. "Nobody lives here," he says. "There are only camps where people stay."

WORKING COMMUNITY

Deadhorse is a remote area that focuses on supporting oil exploration, development and production. Essentially a gigantic industrial site, it provides services to the thousands of people who work on Alaska's North Slope. "It's hard for many Alaskans to imagine what it's like," says Alaska Department of Labor Economist Neal Fried. "It's probably one of the biggest work camps in the world in such an isolated place."

Technically, Deadhorse is an unincorporated community in Alaska's North Slope Borough near the Arctic Ocean. The "town" primarily consists of a general store, post office and a few hotels that provide lodging for the workers of companies operating at the nearby Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Deadhorse buildings are prefabricated modules resting on man-made gravel pads.

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Brooks Range Supply, which houses (and owns) the general store and post office is a key fixture in Deadhorse. The only store of its kind in the area, Brooks carries industrial and oilfield supplies, hardware, auto parts, tools and even lumber. "We're not like a typical auto parts or hardware store," Kunkel says. "We try to stock whatever people might need."

The General Store, located above Brooks Range Supply, stocks a wide variety of general merchandise along with Alaska Native crafts and souvenirs.

Another critical business is Deadhorse Camp, which provides "rustic" hotel accommodations for workers and adventurous tourists.

DEADHORSE MYSTIQUE

Deadhorse is accessible by the James...