Churchill and its landscape

lakes near Churchill with Hudson Bay beyond

The town of Churchill has about 800 permanent residents, many of whom are members of one of the 3 indigenous tribes.  Some are proudly 4^th or 5^th generation Churchillians, as they call themselves.  About 60% live in government-subsidized housing, a necessity in this harsh environment where tourism has replaced hunting and trapping as the main source of income for the local families, but still doesn’t provide adequate incomes for most people.

Churchll's mostly abandoned port

The town is a bit dilapidated, but proud of its heritage and culture.  The modern school building houses all the community services, including indoor and outdoor playgrounds, the health clinic, hospital, gym and social services, a very smart way to make living in Churchill convenient for families.

There are several shops selling local crafts and art, a very expensive grocery store, a small and interesting museum displaying finely carved sculptures from bone, ivory and even human teeth (the artist’s own) and stuffed animals of the region.  One highlight of the town is the murals, painted by local artists on garages and abandoned buildings, that beautifully reflect local culture and love of wild  animals and places.

carvings from the artist's teeth

Tourism has grown hugely over the last 20 years.  Now, tourists come to see the polar bears in the fall as they migrate through the area to the pack ice on Hudson Bay, the Beluga whales in the spring and summer and the Northern lights in the winter.  The tourist infrastructure is small, with some fairly basic hotels and a few restaurants, all geared to groups of tourists and all quite nice, with exceptionally thoughtful staff.

walrus whiskers, Churchill museum

There are no roads to Churchill.  There are a railroad and an airport, built by the US military.  The airport is also a potential landing area (no. 18 in the lineup) for the space shuttles in case landing areas 1 – 17 are not available.  At one point, the railroad was flooded and badly damaged.  The Canadian government refused to repair it for a year and a half, leaving Churchillians stranded with only air service to provide essential supplies.  The railroad is operating again, but the thawing of the permafrost is making the tracks humpy, putting trains at big risk of derailment.  Only one airline, Calm Air, has regularly scheduled flights to Churchill right now.  It also provides charter service as does at least one other airline.

The town once had a large port that primarily exported grain from the farmlands of central and western Canada.  At its peak, 4 ships a day would load up with grain and head out into the Hudson Bay.  Now only a few ships a year dock here, but the huge grain elevators, crumbling docks and abandoned administration building remain.  About half of the grain elevators are used now.  The railroad was built to Churchill to carry the grain to the port.  A year-round ice-free Hudson Bay might restore the port, but, without ice, the fate of the polar bears will be grim.

abandoned port administration building

Churchill is on a point of land between the broad Churchill River and the Hudson Bay.  The prevailing winds blow from north to south and push the pack ice from the frozen North into the bay inside the hook of the peninsula, making Churchill an ideal place for the polar bears to find the pack ice they need to hunt the seals they survive on.  Once the pack ice has filled the bay, the bears take off, often traveling more than 100 miles in search of seals.  They won’t return until the ice begins to break up in the spring, which signals the beginning of their long fast. 

polar bear mural

On both sides of the Churchill River, at Cape Merry, the British set up fortresses to protect their fur hunting grounds from French invaders.  The French weren’t such a big threat, but the fur hunters and traders were, essentially wiping out the huge beaver, fox, seal, bear and otter populations to provide hats and coats for Europeans.  This disaster, of course, was catastrophic for the indigenous people who relied on these animals for food, clothing and shelter, and who killed what they needed and nothing more (until the fur trade arrived).

The tundra is flat and wet.  The province of Manitoba, from Winnipeg to Churchill, is covered 50% by water.  There are shallow ponds everywhere.  When you go out on the tundra in the spacious tundra buggies with their enormous tires, you rumble clumsily along the tracks built decades ago by the army and splash through shallow fresh water ponds and lakes, now freezing over at night and melting a bit during a                                                                       sunny day.

sunset over Hudson Bay