Stuart Strikes Gold in Utqiagvik

Today about 17% of Alaska Housing’s loan portfolio is comprised of rural loans.

The Beginning

“I must have been one of the first ones getting a rural loan,” says Stuart Johnson who bought a house in the community that was then named Barrow in 1979, the year AHFC established its General Insured Rural Mortgage program.

“Housing was very limited. I was fortunate to be able to buy the property, an eight-bedroom house that I turned into a duplex,” remembers Johnson who had to wait 13 months before the loan closed. He grew up in a Swedish/Norwegian town in Washington but friends got him to try his luck in the far north.

Continuing to Build

“Barrow was a gold rush town with so much money floating around. The borough was issuing bonds to finance infrastructure,” says Johnson who decided to take advantage of the opportunity by changing the way he earned his livelihood. From working in a grocery store in Washington, he went to running a janitorial business. Things went well -- so well that he had to build three homes next to his to house his employees.

Johnson wasn’t done expanding. 

Enter Dan Fauske, later AHFC’s CEO/executive director who would serve in that role for 18 years. 

Saying Goodbye to Barrow

“I bought Dan’s old water delivery business from a buddy,” says Johnson who also made time to get married. “I met Dolores on a trip to Arizona. I brought her to Barrow once and that was all she could take,” jokes Johnson who after five years in the Arctic packed up and moved to Anchorage.

“I sold everything. If I remember it right, I think I paid $37,000 for my old house and sold it for $265,000. My time in Barrow made me a different person and I have many friends thanks to the time up there. It’s a special place for me,” says Johnson, who now is 66 years old and still “lives off the money I made in Barrow.”