Stark, cold, windy, forbidding--my first impressions as I glimpsed the Hudson Bay for the first time. It was spitting rain and windy as we took our introductory tour of the historic Churchill Fort positioned on the shore of the bay at the mouth of the Churchill River.
Impossible to ignore--the presence of an armed guard patrolling the area. The guard's presence gave an immediate sense of place--the western shore of the Hudson Bay, a region where polar bears gather to wait for the first ice to freeze. Bears do wander into town from time to time and encounter humans, and those experiences are not desireable for either the humans or the bears. That is what the patrol is about--keeping both bears and people safe.
The geology, the native culture, the climate and the polar bears, all give Churchill a mystical quality that was hard to absorb in a brief visit. There was much more I wanted to explore. Below, you see a memorial stone errected to commemorate the earliest explorations of the area. The boulders that cover the ground along the shore were flattened and smoothed by the movement of glaciers in centuries past, giving the area an other-worldly appearance.
Henry Hudson was the first explorer to arrive in the Hudson Bay area in 1610. In 1619, the Danish explorer, Jens Munck, explored the mouth of the Churchill River and wintered over in this area. 61 of his crew members died of disease and exposure, but Munck and two other crew members survived to return to Europe in 1620.
In 1670 the Hudson Bay Company was established making it the oldest commerical corporation in the world with its beginnings based on the lucrative fur trade in the area and the high demand for beaver pelts to make hats in Europe.
In 1689, the company attempted to establish a post and whale fishery here but failed to succeed. The permanent Churchill River Post, later named, Prince of Wales Fort, was constructed across the river in 1717 by James Knight of the Hudson Bay Company in order to protect the company's interests.
It's hard to be in this area without considering the harsh conditions and practical implications for individual and community survival even today. A quick perusal of the local grocery revealed that the price of a gallon of milk in Churchill at the time of our visit (October 2014) was $26.00! Fuel and food are the most expensive items to purchase.
Prior to European exploration, the ancestors of the Inuit people were the first to settle or hunt in this area. Inuits are the indigenous people of the artic regions of Alaska, Canada and Greenland and were often referred to by Europeans as "Eskimos".
An inukshuk (also spelled inuksuit or inuksut), pictured above, was an important stone structure erected by Inuits as a help to other Inuits. The objects were used as hunting and navigational aids, as indicators of coordination points, as markers for cached food, as communication centers, and sometimes indicators of sacred land and spiritual uses.
I made a too-short visit to Churchill's Eskimo Museum, an amazing repository of both historic and contemporary Inuit art. Delicate art created from stone, ivory, bone, leather, wood and other materials is housed in the museum, as well as, other practical objects made by the Inuit people.
As an artist and one who enjoys the spirit of aboriginal art, I found these objects magical and wanted to spend a lot more time examining and reading about them. The hand-made objects reveal much about the spirit of the people, their culture, and their interactions with the natural world around them.
This is the tenth post in a series on my
journey to Churchill, Manitoba, to see Polar Bears including a visit to
Riding Mountain National Park. Click the
journey to Churchill link to see all the posts. The most recent post will appear first. When you reach the end of the page, click "older post" to continue with the series.
Hudson Bay Buggies and Bears with Rail Travel Tours
Learn about Polar Bears
Hudson Bay
Eskimo Museum
History of Churchill from Churchill Science
Churchill History
the impact of
sea ice decline
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