Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Canada
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Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Canada
© All Rights Reserved
Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Canada
© All Rights Reserved
Pangnirtung, (Pannirtuuq in Inuktitut = “the Place of Bull Caribou”), Nunavut, Canada
On the east coast of Baffin Island, within the Cumberland Sound.
www.pangnirtung.ca/history
Long before non-Inuit arrived, the Cumberland Sound area was home to Inuit and their predecessors, the Thule and Dorset cultures. In fact, the Cumberland Sound has been home to a large population since the earliest times of human habitation in the Arctic.
The first European known to have explored this area was John Davis in 1585. He was searching for the fabled Northwest Passage. In 1838, a Scottish whaler named William Penny and his guide Eenooloapik discovered the entrance to Cumberland Sound. This led to a rush of Scottish and American bowhead whalers.
The Inuit way of life began to change at this point. By late 1850, many Inuit left their traditional camps to work at the whaling stations at Nuvuyen (on the south coast of Cumberland Sound) and Kekerten Island (on the North coast of the Sound).
According to local legend, a man named Attagoyuk gave the Community its name. Today, the local High School is named in his honour.
In 1921, The Hudson Bay Company built a trading post in Pangnirtung which began to attract Inuit to the area. Two years later, in 1923, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (R.C.M.P.) built their first detachment. In 1929, St. Luke’s Mission Hospital was established.
The population of Pangnirtung was quite small until the early 1960’s. In 1962, many of the Inuit living on Cumberland Sound moved to Pangnirtung after a distemper epidemic killed most of their sled dogs. That same year, the Federal Government established their first administrative office in the community.
In 1973, Pangnirtung became a self governing municipal government. Today, Pangnirtung is a vibrant community known world-wide for its carvings, tapestries and prints and world class scenery as well as its access to Auyuittuq National Park.
Pangnirtung is one of only three Nunavut Communities with a fish processing plant and a robust Arctic Char and Greenlandic Turbot Fishery. As such, Pangnirtung became the first community in Nunavut to obtain funding to construct a small craft Harbour.
The mountains are so spectacular we are sometimes referred to “as The Switzerland of the Arctic”. Inuit musicians have even wrote music about them.
Our nearby National Park “Auyuittuq” is just north of Pangnirtung, close to 20 miles, accessible by foot, boat, or snow machine. Local outfitters are available, the Parks office must be aware if you plan to visit the Auyuittuq National Park.
Local fisherman fish long-lines to the ocean floor in Cumberland Sound for Halibut, It`s a million dollar fishing industry. The halibut shares Cumberland Sound with arctic char, scallops, clams, seaweed, bowhead whales, beluga, narwhal, walrus along with ring and bearded seals. Birds of all kids that come around in spring, raptor birds no exceptions.
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© All Rights Reserved