Churchill, MB II (8/2/2023)

Wednesday, August 2, 2023 (continued)

Before lunch, we continued the tour of Churchill that we missed due to the flight delay yesterday.

Cape Merry Battery with the 1718 wall; in the foreground
is greywacke rock, a metamorphosed quartz sandstone

Cape Merry Cairn (1920) celebrates the Hudson's Bay
Company Fort Churchill (1717) that was its most
northerly post on the Hudson Bay; the battery was
located at the mouth of Churchill River opposite
the Prince of Wales Fort (1731)

Shepherdia canadensis/Russet Buffaloberry

Human Nature (2017, by Askew One) on the side of 
the former Port Staff House (c 1950), later the CHGH
Television Station, and now abnadoned

Another mural on the former Port Staff House.
The Rope (2016, by Case Maclaim)
illustrates the precarious lifeline of
Churchill (the railroad) that is dependent
on the fragile subarctic terrain, which
cannot always support the railway

The Rope close-up (KSS)

Untitled (2017, by Li-Hill)

View of the extensive grain elevators in the Port of Churchill

A single rock shows the three lichens found in
Churchill: orange Xanthoria elegans/Elegant Sunburst
Lichen, green Rhizocarpon geographicum/Map Lichen
and maybe grey/black Physcia tribacia

Churchill Inukshuk, on the beach, is not a true inukshuk as it
was made with modern machinery by a non-indigenous person

It is illegal to destroy an inukshuk, which
has become a symbol of the Inuit and their
homeland, and for the ancestors who knew
how to survive on the land in traditional ways

Looking north along the sandy shore of Hudson Bay

More Elegant Sunburst Lichen

For lunch at the Ptarmigan Restaurant, I had
Ptarmigan Poutine, which I was assured was quintessential
Canadian dish with fries, gravy and cheese curds
(also mayonnaise in the little cup)

Continuing our Churchill tour, a quick look at the
Know I Am Here mural (2017, by Georgia Hill)
sends the message of the importance of the Churchill
community that felt forgotten in a time of crisis

The only way to access this remote town of Churchill is by train or by air. In 2017, many families were forced to leave Churchill after the seaport closed and the train tracks were destroyed by flooding, leaving the remaining residents without access to supplies, jobs or affordable transportation. To give the town some hope and joy, artist Kal Barteski organized 18 artists from around the world to work on the Seawalls Churchill Project, creating murals on buildings and industrial spaces.

Even Miss Piggy sports a mural: A Small Northern Town
and our Common Crisis Emergency Transmission (2017,
by Pat Perry); Miss Piggy is a Curtiss C-46 “Commando”
 twin-prop cargo aircraft owned by Lamb Airways Ltd;
Miss Piggy crashed in 1979 due to a mechanical problem,
but the pilot and crew survived

Miss Piggy's view of Hudson Bay

Polar Bear Holding Facility aka the Polar Bear Jail is in
the former military base morgue (1950s, renovated
1979-1982 as the holding facility)

Churchill Polar Bear Alert Program is a community service to protect the citizens and their property from the bears, but also to avoid the need to kill the bears. When people spot a bear, they call 204-675-BEAR. If any polar bear approaches the town, they first try to get them to go away by hazing them with loud noises, or rubber bullets if necessary. If the bear will not leave, it is enticed into a culvert trap, or immobilized with a tranquilizer gun.

A culvert trap is baited with seal meat

The other end of the trap has open steel mesh

Dylan in the bear trap

Stellie from New York and Hawaii is dwarfed by the culvert

Pete in the culvert bear trap

Just before the sea ice forms, the polar bears begin arriving
near Churchill, and the town is surrounded by bear traps

Wayward bears are kept in the holding facility with only water, and no food. It is meant to be an environment to which they do not want to return. Bears are weighed and measured, and given a tag and tattoo to identify them. After a stay of up to 30 days, they are transported in a sling by helicopter at least 70 km/43 miles from Churchill and released. If sea ice has formed, the bears are released closer to town where they are eager to get on the ice to hunt seals.

Peace + Circumstance (2017,  by Kal Barteski)
is on the Polar Bear Holding Facility

Next: Tundra Buggy Tour.