Charles D. Brower

Charles DeWitt Brower (March 6, 1863 – February 11, 1945) was an American whaler, trader, postmaster, and writer who spent most of his adult life at Point Barrow, Alaska, then commonly known as Barrow. He became involved in shore-based whaling and trading and was a long-term resident of the predominantly Iñupiat community. Dartmouth College's archival records describe him as a whaler, trader, and postmaster and note that he became known as the "King of the Arctic".

Brower is the author of Fifty Years Below Zero: A Lifetime of Adventure in the Far North, published in 1942. The memoir describes commercial whaling, Iñupiaq subsistence whaling, trade, cultural exchange, and social change in northern Alaska. Historian Jennifer Schell has examined the memoir as both an important historical source and a selective autobiographical account whose omissions require critical interpretation.

Early life and first journey to Arctic Alaska

Brower was born in New York City on March 6, 1863. By his early twenties he was working as a sailor. In 1884, Josiah N. Knowles of the Pacific Steam Whaling Company asked the 21-year-old Brower to travel to Cape Lisburne on Alaska's Chukchi Sea coast. The company was interested in a recently reported coal deposit and wanted Brower to determine whether the coal could be exploited and whether a recruiting and supply station for whaling vessels could be established there.

Arctic whaling disaster of 1897–1898

Brower played a significant role during the Arctic whaling disaster of 1897–1898, when several commercial whaling vessels became trapped or were destroyed by sea ice near Point Barrow. More than 200 whalers were forced to spend the winter in the area under precarious conditions.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), Brower's experience, hunting skills, supplies, and logistical knowledge helped sustain the stranded crews. Local Iñupiat also supplied food and other resources to the survivors. A government relief effort subsequently drove a large herd of reindeer north toward Barrow. When the relief party arrived, the stranded men were in better condition than rescuers had anticipated, in substantial part because food had already been obtained locally.

The episode illustrates the importance of local Indigenous knowledge and subsistence production to the survival of outsiders in the Arctic. NOAA's account describes contributions by both Brower and local Iñupiat to the survival of the stranded whalers. Sadie later became an educator, social worker, magistrate, and advocate for Iñupiaq language and community interests.

His reputation connected him with explorers, researchers, and aviators. In August 1935, humorist Will Rogers and aviator Wiley Post were flying from Fairbanks toward Point Barrow with the intention of visiting Brower when their aircraft crashed near Walakpa, southwest of Barrow, killing both men.

Brower also participated in scientific and collecting activities. His knowledge of northern Alaska made him useful to naturalists, archaeologists, and other researchers, while his own activities included collecting natural-history specimens and investigating archaeological sites.

Historical interpretation and criticism

Scholars have emphasized that Fifty Years Below Zero differs from many other American commercial-whaling memoirs of the period. Schell compares Brower's account with John A. Cook's Pursuing the Whale and Hartson H. Bodfish's Chasing the Bowhead. She argues that Brower gave substantial recognition to Indigenous expertise, particularly Iñupiaq knowledge of bowhead whale behavior, boat construction, hunting techniques, and the Arctic environment.

Brower's surviving papers are held by Dartmouth College's Rauner Special Collections Library. The Charles D. Brower Papers, designated Mss-13, include diaries, articles, manuscripts, and galley proofs relating to his work as a whaler, trader, and postmaster. The collection includes materials associated with Fifty Years Below Zero, My Arctic Outpost, and the longer autobiographical manuscript The Northernmost American.

Selected works

Brower, Charles D., with Philip J. Farrelly and Lyman Anson. Fifty Years Below Zero: A Lifetime of Adventure in the Far North. New York: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1942.