Prudhoe Bay

Most towns have museums that chronicle local history and achievements. Deadhorse is the town anchoring life along Prudhoe Bay, but it could also serve as a museum dedicated to humankind's thirst for energy and its ability to adapt to harsh conditions to appease the need for oil and gas.

The costly, much-publicized Arctic oil-and-gas project is complex and varied. Visitors can survey oil wells, stations, and oil-company residential complexes—small cities in themselves—and might get a chance to spot caribou and wildflowers.