Gjoa Haven (Uqsuqtuuq)

The Community Where Roald Amundsen Wintered In 1903 05 During The First Complete Transit Of The Northwest Passage, And The Nearest Settlement To The Wrecks Of HMS Erebus And HMS Terror, Found In 2014 And 2016 · Gjoa Haven, Nunavut

Uqsuqtuuq means the place of plenty blubber, and Netsilik Inuit have lived on King William Island for a very long time. The other name comes from ROALD AMUNDSEN, who brought the GJOA into the harbour in 1903 and stayed TWO WINTERS on the way to completing the first transit of the Northwest Passage - and who spent those winters LEARNING FROM THE NETSILIK: how to build snow houses, how to handle dogs, how to dress in caribou skin rather than wool. That knowledge took him to the South Pole ahead of Scott, and he said so plainly. The same waters hold the other half of the story: HMS EREBUS WAS FOUND IN 2014 AND HMS TERROR IN 2016, the lost ships of the Franklin expedition, located after generations of Inuit oral testimony about where they had gone down were finally taken seriously. The Nattilik Heritage Centre tells both. There is no road; you fly.

King William Island, Kitikmeot Region, Gjoa Haven, Nunavut, Canada

A LIVED-IN INUIT COMMUNITY, NOT AN ATTRACTION - no gate, no admission, no season. WHAT HAS HOURS IS INDOORS: the NATTILIK HERITAGE CENTRE keeps limited weekday hours and is the one place that tells the Amundsen and Franklin stories properly - CONFIRM IT IS OPEN before building a trip around it, because staffing in a community of about thirteen hundred is thin. ACCESS IS BY SCHEDULED FLIGHT from Yellowknife or Cambridge Bay; THERE IS NO ROAD and weather cancels flights regularly, so build spare days into any itinerary. ACCOMMODATION IS VERY LIMITED and must be booked well ahead. THE WRECK SITES THEMSELVES ARE PROTECTED AND NOT OPEN TO VISITORS - they are managed dive sites, not a tourist stop. Alcohol rules in Nunavut communities are strict; check the local position.

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