Kekerten Territorial Park

A Whaling Era Historic Site On An Island In Cumberland Sound, With The Ruins Of A 19th Century Whaling Station, Whale Bones, Boiling Pots And The History Of Inuit And Whalers, Reached Only By Boat Or Sled From Pangnirtung. A Remote Park With A Deep Arctic History · Pangnirtung, Nunavut

Kekerten Territorial Park occupies a low island in Cumberland Sound on the east coast of Baffin Island, about 50 km by sea from the hamlet of Pangnirtung (confirm distance). In the nineteenth century the island was one of the most important whaling stations in the eastern Arctic, where Scottish and American whalers boiled bowhead blubber in iron pots and traded with the Inuit who came to work and camp there. Today the park protects the ruins of that era, with the foundations of buildings, rusting pots, stone graves and bleached whale bones scattered along the shore, beside older Inuit camp sites and tent rings. The island has no road, no dock and no staff in most seasons, and it is reached only by chartered boat in summer or by snowmobile and sled over the ice in spring, with local outfitters (confirm). A visit is a quiet, thoughtful experience of Arctic history and living Inuit heritage, set in a wide, empty seascape.

Kekerten Territorial Park, on Kekerten Island in Cumberland Sound about 50 km by sea south-east of Pangnirtung on Baffin Island; coordinates approximate within about 10 km, Pangnirtung, Nunavut, Canada

The park has no gate and no fixed hours, but access depends entirely on the sea and the ice. Boat trips from Pangnirtung run in the open-water weeks of about July to early September, when tides, wind and fog decide the day (confirm). In late winter and spring, outfitters may take visitors by snowmobile and sled over the sea ice, with the floe edge shifting from year to year (confirm). Freeze-up and break-up close the island for weeks, and long summer light gives time for a late return.

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