Inside America’s most remote town just 2.4 miles from Russia where only 77 people live & a bottle of detergent costs $40
JUST 2.4 miles from Russia lies America's most remote town where only 77 people live.
Less than three square miles in size, Little Diomede is perched in the middle of the Bering Strait off Alaska - separated from the Russian island Big Diomede by a stormy stretch of sea.
As tensions mount between Russia and the United States amid the raging Ukraine war, there are Americans who can literally see Russia from the windows of their homes.
And although the two islands are separated by only 2.4 miles, there is a 23-hour time difference.
For more than 3,000 years, the Iñupiat communities have navigated the treacherous Arctic conditions on Little Diomede, spending their days gathering supplies and hunting whales, walrus, polar bears and seals.
Summer temperatures only reach 10C, while the mercury can plunge to an icy -14C in the winter, meaning the Bering Straight is generally frozen between December and June.
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Living on rocks surrounded by sea-ice just south of the Arctic Circle, residents also face a barrage of 90mph winds.
During the winter months, the community take part in the annual "polar bear watch" to keep everyone safe from attacks.
There are around 30 buildings - including a school, a library and a heliport - on the island, mostly built in the 1970s and 80s.
But the vast rocky landscape means there are no cemeteries, buried utilities, no roads and barely any space for more buildings.
There's no bank or restaurant, and the main shop has only limited food, clothing, firearms, and fuel - meaning anything else must be flown in.
The weekly mail delivery is made by helicopter and most supplies stocked in the store come from a barge delivery just once a year.
Costs of living are sky high, with a bottle of laundry detergent at the island store setting residents back nearly £40, reports.
Although Little Diomede is one of the remotest places on the planet, the single school on the island turns its WiFi on for a couple of hours every afternoon and kids gather to catch the only signal in town.
"We're the back door of the country — or the front door, rather."
Little Diomede has been part of Alaska since 1867 after the US bought the island from Russia for a price tag of £6.2million, according to the Library of Congress.
ISOLATED ISLAND
Years ago, the Russian and American communities on the two islands were deeply intertwined.
In the winter, an ice bridge would form between the islands, allowing residents to freely walk back and forth.
Little and Big Diomedeans would marry, share traditions, and their cultures blurred into one.
But the Cold War changed relations between the two islands forever.
In 1948, Russia booted the native population off Big Diomede and made it into a military base, and most locals fled to Little Diomede or to Siberia.
But the decision to build a military base split the close bond between the two settlements - and Russians have rarely set foot on Little Diomede since.
Mother nature makes Little Diomede a tricky place to reach - when there's no ice bridge to use, visitors can only get there by air.
Those wanting to visit the island have to take flight from Russia to Nome and then to the coastal Alaskan town of Wales by plane.
From there they head to the island via a helicopter - the only real link to the mainland and how supplies reach the community.
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It means the island and its residents are hugely dependent on the weather - bad weather means the chopper can't land and ships can't moor.
Bering Air stopped flying to Little Diomede after a storm broke up the frozen landing strip in 2018.