Name: Extremities
Uploaded: 2022
Description: From Wendover Productions, Extremities brings you the stories of how and why the world’s most remote settlements exist.

From Wendover Productions, Extremities brings you the stories of how and why the world’s most remote settlements exist.

Wake Island is but a speck in the mighty Pacific. Yet, this oft-overlooked American outpost operated as a key cog in the rise of trans-Pacific aviation, served as a backdrop for vicious World War II fighting, and functioned as a critical way point during the Cold War. And its story isn’t over yet.

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A key cog in trans-Pacific aviation, a backdrop for vicious World War II fighting, and a waypoint in America’s Cold War operations, Wake Island’s story isn’t over yet.

Wake Island

Tristan da Cunha is the world’s most remote permanently inhabited island. Deep in the South Atlantic and without an airstrip, Tristanians live in the shadow of a volcano and depend on the sea. It’s a six-day boat ride to the African mainland, but that’s only part of what makes life here extreme.

Tristan da Cunha is the world’s most remote permanently inhabited island. It’s six days from the African mainland, but that’s only part of what makes life here extreme.

Tristan da Cunha

Nestled along the west coast of Scotland, Knoydart is a protected peninsula accessible only by ferry or foot. Various challenges have threatened the region over the years, and each time the community rallied in unique ways—including its recent fight to save an unassuming neighborhood necessity.

Nestled along the west coast of Scotland, Knoydart is a protected peninsula accessible only by ferry or foot. Various challenges have threatened the region over the years

Knoydart

Polar bears, piercing cold, and months without sunlight make living near the North Pole punishing—just getting to Alert is an adventure on its own. But within these confines, a collection of people have carved out a community, making this the northernmost permanent settlement in the world.

Polar bears, piercing cold, and months without sunlight make living in Alert punishing. Some, though, live here anyway, making Alert the world’s northernmost settlement.

Alert, Canada

At Alaska’s northern edge sits a town unlike any other—because it’s not really a town. With zero year- round residents and punishing gale-force winds, Prudhoe Bay’s 3,000-person workforce flies in every two weeks to power one of the largest oil fields in the world.

With zero permanent residents, year-round gale-force winds, and a workforce of 3,000 people, Prudhoe Bay isn’t a town in the traditional sense—it’s an oil-powered enigma.

Prudhoe Bay

Deep in the Australian Outback exists a network of indigenous communities, connected by school and culture. Of these, Kiwirrkurra is the furthest away, and sits at the cross-section of millennia-old customs and modern-day influence.

Deep in the Australian Outback sits Kiwirrkurra, the farthest removed community in an interconnected network of indigenous villages.