Churchill: Polar Bear Capital of the world
Churchill, Manitoba, located 970 km north of Winnipeg in the sub-Arctic tundra, is announced as "the polar bear "and" white whale "capital of the world.
Northern region of the province, the location of its first inhabitants, the land had for nomadic tribes had hunted, fish, seals and whales, and monitoring of the caribou herd migration of thousands of years, using the tracks interconnected river as their means of transport. Although the Europeans, as Sir Thomas Button, had sailed to the mouth of the Churchill River and in 1613 in search of the Northwest Passage difficult for China, which had been the discovery of secondary skin with plenty of animals that had caused them to stay to meet the demand created by the soaked in cold Europe. In 1670, the Trading Company of adventures in the Hudson Bay were formed as the first company and collaboration with the current Aboriginal intimately familiar with its territory, has provided leadership and guidance, along with the work and livelihood. The animals were trapped and hidden and their skins are transported on the rivers of northern York canoes and boats on the Hudson Bay, an extension of the Arctic Ocean for the transfer of transatlantic ships bound for Europe. Supplies, however, there are unloaded from ships arriving and were transported into the Hudson Bay Company (HBC) increasing the number of outposts.
In 1912, the northern region became the latest edition to the province of Manitoba.
Deposits ore, which is under forests, replaced the fur trade as of today's society, resulting in a multitude of minefields, outgrowths of which were cities with populations of inflammation, while hydroelectric dams on rivers to harness the power of the region.
Churchill himself, which is just below the line between the province of Nunavut and Manitoba, at the confluence of the Churchill River and Hudson Bay with a population of just over 1,000, which covers only a few blocks, but attracted a growing number of visitors in search of eco-tourism. The same area had been inhabited for 3,500 years, but the first permanent structure had been the Prince of Wales fort built in 1732 across the River. In 1769, Britain's Royal Society noted the eclipse of the sun Venice there, but it was not until 1929 with the completion of the railroad from Hudson Bay, the site of the city had been transferred the current part and, in conjunction with the railroad, became a grain port. During World War II the U.S. built a Strategic Air Command (SAC) and the base during the Cold War with the Soviet Union, the Churchill Research Range, now the Churchill Studies Center North, had lifted. The modern and 22,300 square feet Churchill Town Centre Complex, the city's latest project construction includes a play area for children, a nursery, a curling rink, an arena, a bowling alley, gymnasium, swimming pool, a library, a pizzeria, a theater with 300 seats, and a school for grades kindergarten through 12 and gave the too cold to use the beach at Hudson Bay.
Travel to Churchill can be torturous at best. There are no roads in or out. Air Canada offers multiple- direct flights from Toronto and Montreal to Winnipeg, where VIA Rail Canada offers train service three times a week on behalf of Hudson Bay proper, which takes about 36 hours to cover the 1,700 miles of land, through three distinct topographical areas: farmland, boreal forests and tundra beautiful austerity. With the To reduce costs, leading many to Thompson, where the paved road ends, or Gillam, where the dirt road ends and the transfer to the train. Calm Air offers twice daily Saab 340 turboprop services in Winnipeg, which is reduced to once per day on weekends.
Of the half dozen motels or so, including Seaport Hotel, Motel Churchill, the Aurora Inn, Hotel Iceberg, the Tundra Inn, and the Lazy Bear Lodge, an average of all 25 rooms and vary in a note by a star complete, but the latter, handmade fire killed the records in the hair style was the trade, is the largest building record in all of Manitoba. Despite of all fees is available cuisine, indigenous peoples of the north, arctic char, musk ox and caribou meat, can be ordered in most restaurants belonging to the motels.
Places of interest depend on the season: the aurora borealis (northern lights) from January to March, April and August seals, bird watching from May to June, wild flowers from June to August, beluga whale watching between July and August, and polar bears from October to November.
On my first day in Churchill, decided to take a half-day tundra buggy adventure. Following the main road, paved in the city, the van crossed extension ground, driving past the former Air Base and the Strategic Command of the current Churchill Northern Studies Centre, and came to the Tundra Buggy Depot composed of two rows of five support vehicles on a raised wooden boarding platform. The buggy itself, converted into Churchill, had offered a truck-chassis cannibalized aluminum, four enormous tires, tubeless, and a diesel engine 466, and contained the school bus and filled the benches, an oven and a bathroom on the rear and an observation deck outside to observe wildlife.
Negotiating gravel, dirt, rocks, mud, swamps and streams, and through sterile tundra, tundra buggy lurched 11 beyond the military observation tower and purple fireweed wild flowers and green velvet-like moss on the banks of Hudson Bay, the encounter with tundra swans, woodland caribou and snow geese on the way to a location on the polar bear. Drinks and snacks were served to while a bear alone, fasting in the tundra until temperatures fall again allows the formation of ice and continued their daily hunt seals, moved around the pond and investigated the high tundra buggy, lively in the maneuvers of two and four legs, smelling, looking and approaches with caution until reached in just meters from the observation platform.
The polar bear life cycles revolve around the seasons. The 1,300 polar bears in the Bay Hudson, the world's largest land carnivores, and the only bears "seafarer", spend most of their time watching the sea ice seals in for breathing holes or hunting the edges of the ice sheets. When the ice breaks up in spring, are forced to land, where they fast for several months. Males adults, ranging in length from 240 to 260 cm, can weigh between 400 and 600 kg, while women, half of these lengths, weighing between 150 and 250 kg.
A morning excursion to Fort Prince of Wales and the whale watching area of ??the Churchill River had been planned for the second day. The very strength, is reached by a river crossing of the zodiac, is a National Historic Site of Canada and had been built by the British at the mouth of the river Churchill, Eskimo Point, during the 40 years between 1732 and 1772 for three main reasons:
- Establish a center of trade with the natives, ie, the Cree, Dene, and Inuit.
- To create a safe haven in times of war ships of the Hudson Bay Company.
- To build a where it could be carried out exploration in the north.
The star-shaped fort, 12 feet thick walls and a bastion of support surrounding top 40 guns, had offered to enter, two men of the neighborhood level on the left and the shops and services, including the carpenter, tailor, blacksmith, and the bakery to the right.
In 1782, when the French Navy had sailed into Hudson Bay, Prince of Wales Fort, which proved to be a insignificant match his opponent with a small, besieged and enough ammunition had been surrendered to the French Admiral Jean-Francois Galaup, despite a treaty later returned to British control.
Excursion in the morning, continuing through the zodiac Churchill River, went to a 3 – to the area 5 m depth at a slow pace, moving within the circle of beluga whales, which regularly arched into the sky, sometimes four deep, with to inhale air. As high doves had appeared the nose into the water, their fins temporarily suspended vertically until it was gone. Babies identifiable by their white skin, swimming with their mothers, who sported darker gray coatings. The warmer waters of the Churchill River, but not anymore Ice Bound, had been the source of the abundant sea life and whales, pointing to the dam, surrounded him, tightening its circumference until it had moved to their attacks.
Beluga whales, whose brains are larger than those of humans with larger surface areas, which with its upper lobe, smooth and sound use as a principle of respect that comes through their jaws. Because water provides a more effective than air, sound waves travel five times faster. Beluga whales are among the few guys who can move their necks. Typical foraging involves holding the breath, depth perception diving as low as 1,000 feet, and attack the fish before returning to the surface.
In the afternoon was spent digging through the Visitor Centre in Churchill, museums, gift shops and restaurants, and the next morning, separated from the previous day evening for only four hours of darkness, which was already time to the all-too-soon return trip to Winnipeg. Conducted by air, was completed in less than two hours and half an hour by turboprop aircraft.
Winnipeg, almost comparable to my native Manhattan, was however a metropolis of skyscrapers with a growing population and traffic congestion, but my thoughts quickly returned to the crisp clear air and Churchill, the little people, warm people who seemed to know everyone who lives there, its arid environment, but somehow beautiful subarctic tundra, and abundant wildlife, living in harmony with nature laws, not man. And I somehow missed it.
I can return there someday …
About the Author
A graduate of Long Island University-C.W. Post Campus with a summa-cum-laude BA Degree in Comparative Languages and Journalism, I have subsequently earned the Continuing Community Education Teaching Certificate from the Nassau Association for Continuing Community Education (NACCE) at Molloy College, the Travel Career Development Certificate from the Institute of Certified Travel Agents (ICTA) at LIU, and the AAS Degree in Aerospace Technology at the State University of New York – College of Technology at Farmingdale. Having amassed almost three decades in the airline industry, I managed the New York-JFK and Washington-Dulles stations at Austrian Airlines, created the North American Station Training Program, served as an Aviation Advisor to Farmingdale State University of New York, and devised and taught the Airline Management Certificate Program at the Long Island Educational Opportunity Center. A freelance author, I have written some 70 books of the short story, novel, nonfiction, essay, poetry, article, log, curriculum, training manual, and textbook genre in English, German, and Spanish, having principally focused on aviation and travel, and I have been published in book, magazine, newsletter, and electronic Web site form. I am a writer for Cole Palen’s Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome in New York. I have made some 350 lifetime trips by air, sea, rail, and road.