Baker Lake, Chesterfield Inlet, Rankin Inlet and Arviat, Four villages in the centre of Canada, on the eastern coast of Hudson Bay

The geographical centre of Canada is located on the northwest coast of Hudson Bay; this northernly location is caused by the extraordinary extension of the Northern Territories, the Arctic Archipelago reaching as far as 83° N at Cape Columbia, on Ellesmere Island.

The region around the geographical centre is scarcely populated, with four main settlements: Rankin Inlet, Chesterfield Inlet, Baker Lake and Arviat. All of them somehow related to the times of whale hunting and fur trading around the Bay.

The Kivalliq region of Nunavut, Canada.

The main settlements are along Thelon River, for centuries the most important way to access the area. It flows eastwards 904 km to discharge into Baker Lake and Chesterfield Inlet.

The Thelon River is one of the great rivers of the North.

For the Inuit, the river is a vital source of caribou and fish. Not only did they live near and around its course, but they also provided the waterway route to the North for many of the Europeans that travelled and traded in that area.

Thelon River's basin is designated Canadian Heritage ; a magnificent tundra scenery, a land of caribou herds, musk-ox, white wolves, gyrfalcons, grizzly and wolverine.

The Thelon sweeps across spruce-lined valleys, winding through the barrens and shimmering lakes, like mirrors in the tundra.

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Baker Lake is notable as an native artistic community ; I have already posted about the town here.

The other settlements are smaller but somehow all three related with the fur trade times:

Map of the HBC fur trade routes.


Chesterfield Inlet

Coordinates: 63°20′ N, 90°42′ W
Population: ~ 330

Chesterfield Inlet (Igluligaarjuk, meaning "a place with few igloos") is located east of the mouth of Thelon River, where the inlet merges into Hudson Bay.

This small hamlet is considered by some people the oldest continuing community in the eastern Arctic. Along the 17th century, brittish ships visited the place in search of the Northwest Passage, as by the time the inlet was thought a possible access.

In 1912 both Roman Catholic missionaries and the Hudson Bay Company opened here their permanent residences. And Rasmussen, the danish explorer, stayed here a few days in 1922 during the 5th Thule expedition.

The HBC outpost in Chesterfield Inlet.

The house is now part of the 'Northern Store' facility; on the wall, the old HBC times are reminded in a historic map.

A house of the HBC complex is now a private residence.


Until the 1950s, Chesterfield Inlet was of great importance in the eastern Arctic with its supply buildings for the HBC and a large Roman Catholic mission.

Built in 1944 as 'Hospital of St. Thérese', this Catholic Mission House is now a residence for disabled elders.

Chesterfield lights at dusk, reflecting on the Inlet waters.



Rankin Inlet

Coordinates: 62°48′ N, 92°05′ W
Population:  ~2500

Rankin Inlet is the most important settlement in the Kivalliq region, a dynamic and growing town with modern facilities.

The arrival of American and European whalers in Hudson Bay in the 1800's marks the first years of Rankin Inlet. Later, the whalers departed, and the local Inuit population was only visited by missionaries and the  HBC traders, who had been around since the 18th century.

Rankin is now a government town, a bustling community that serves also as a transportation hub for the Kivalliq Region, thanks to its modern and well equipped airport.

Rankin Inlet airport Terminal, always busy.

The arrival of civil servants and their families revitalized the community. Miners, farmers and artists made transition into government jobs.

The brand new Health Center.

The Arctic College of Rankin Inlet.

The 'Northern Inn' and its tower clock, a typical feature in town.

Build-it-yourself house.

And one more.

Tara's B&B, shop and café

Shopping with style, Rankin way.

I really enjoy this !

Sealskin 'Mukluks' during a community celebration.

Come on, brave little school bus !



Arviat

Coordinates: 61°06′ N, 94°03′ W
Population  ~1800

Arviat is a traditional Inuit hamlet located on the western coast of Hudson Bay, the southernmost mainland community of Nunavut. Arviat is situated 90 kilometres north of the tree line. Tundra lands, lakes, rivers and seawaters are rich in wildlife, as the thundering herds of migrating caribou.

When the Hudson Bay Company set up a trading post here in 1921, they called it 'Eskimo Point'. The HBC post attracted Inuit to the area, as arctic fox were plentiful and trapping was a profitable trade. Catholic and Anglican missions arrived in 1924 and 1926.

Modern housing.

The village's name was changed to Arviat in 1989.

The two churches.

The 'Donald Suluk Library', a resource for students in the community.

'Inns North', the best accomodation in town.

The surprising Visitor Center to the Kivalliq region.


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An elaborate woven wall hanging by native artist Isaqkijaq, decorating Nanuk Lodge in Rankin Inlet.

Oldest tree on earth: 'Old Tjikko'- if only trees could talk !...

Old Tjikko, also known as Dalarna spruce, is a 9550-year-old spruce tree, located on Fulufjället Park in Sweden. Old Tjikko is the world's oldest known living individual clonal tree.

Fulufjället Park, at 61°35′ N 12°40′ E, is an inland park close to the Norway-Sweden border. Notable features include Sweden's largest waterfall, Njupeskär, with a total height of 93 meters, and a free fall of 70.

The age of the spruce tree was determined by carbon dating of the underground root system. The visible tree is comparatively young, estimated to be a few hundred years old, but as a whole the spruce may have survived for much longer due to a process known as layering :
when a branch comes in contact with the ground, it sprouts a new root.

This root system dates back thousands of years, the most accurate estimation is 9550 years.

The trunk of the tree may die and regrow multiple times, but the tree's root system remains intact and in turn sprouts another trunk.
The trunk may only live for about 600 years, and when one trunk dies another eventually grows back in its place.

Each winter, heavy snow may push the tree's low-lying branches to ground level, where they take root and survive to grow again the next year.

To put things in perspective, Old Tjikko 'saw' the last Ice Age, Mammoths must have been passing around...

The earliest known Neolithic writings in Europe have been carbon dated to the 6th millennium BC (8000 years ago) - the Dispilio Tablet. It is hard to imagine that this little tree has been alive to see our species develop from a population of 5 million individuals, living in small hunter-gatherer tribes, to the 7 billion dominant species on Earth.

What fabulous stories it would tell us - if only it could talk.


Other very old trees

'Pando aspen colony', Utah, USA

Old Tjikko is the oldest tree in Europe; however, there are other older clonal colonies (multiple trees connected by a common root system), such as this 'Pando', estimated to be over 80 000 years old.

The Pando Quaking Aspen colony is a spectacular little aspen forest which in fact is one only organism - all trees born of the common root system since the Paleolithic, some 80 000 years of age !

Asia : a large very old Cypress

The Sarv-e-Abarqu, a Cypress in Abarqu, Iran, is the oldest living thing in Asia.

With a height of 25 metres and 18 metres of circumference, it is estimated to be over 4000 years old - and to have seen the rise and fall of many empires and civilizations !

Betty's reading room , Tingwall - Mainland Orkney

Tingwall is a place up north in the Orkney Islands - maybe the Greek Pytheas himself was there around  325 BC, looking for Ultima Thule and the Hyperboreans.

Trees are already scarce on this northern soil, the hillsides and flatlands covered by grass and sheep pasture; it takes several hours by ferry or road to reach some little town, and even that will be a quite peripheral one. Lively culture happens far away.

Tingwall, on Mainland Orkney

The main income sources are fisheries and sheep farming for wool (famous sweaters !). Nights are long, Winter never ends. When the Sun shows up, everything is inundated with a magic, splendid light, blue and green glittering for a moment, and then it's over.

The Orkneys are dream islands, with mysterious little towns like stone ghosts in the mist - Kirkwall, Stromness* - and amazing megalithic alignments - the Brodgar complex. Those who live there know what loneliness is.

Maybe that's why many left to explore North America, especially aboard the ships of the Hudson Bay Co., the fur company, which recruited sailors here and had an asset warehouse since 1702 until the beginning of the 20th century.

This is the place where Betty's Reading Room happened :

In nowhere land, away from everything, less than half a dozen scattered houses and a docking jetty for the ferry, someone who is very fond of books decided to offer a little house - a stone cabin - as reading room, in honour of a dear friend deceased.

This Reading Room alone makes me wish to pack and sail away to the Orkney mists.

It might contain just airport literature; but in there are some Salman Rushdie, Umberto Eco, Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Hemingway, Dickens, ... 

"The truth has never been of any real value to any human being—it is a symbol for mathematicians and philosophers to pursue. In human relations kindness and lies are worth a thousand truths."

Graham Greene, Heart of the Matter

The cabin was once part of a small farm by the pier. There lived Betty Prictor, a teacher in love with books and literature.

Some friends, wishing to preserve her memory and legacy, opened the Reading Room in 2012, a cosy welcoming space, warm in Winter, where anyone can sit reading while waiting for the ferry - it is sometimes a long wait.

And you can take the book home to finish.
Just - ‘Please return – eventually.’

'Tingwall' is a name of  Viking origin, Thingvöl­lr, meaning "assembly field". In the Orkneyinga saga there is a reference to Viking Parliament reunion here in 1174.

Europe? THIS is my Europe.


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*See about Stromness here.