Rankin Inlet

Rankin Inlet is located on the west coast of Hudson Bay and it is the transportation, health services, and business centre for the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut.  Rankin Inlet's history is in mining, as the town was developed and came into being as a community when the North Rankin Nickel Mine was in operation from 1957-1962.  Many Inuit came in off the land to work in the mine during those years, and some moved on to work in mines in Yellowknife, Flin Flon and elsewhere. The population of Rankin Inlet dwindled to about 320 in 1964.  Rankin Inlet's current population is just over 2000.

Federal work projects were established in Rankin Inlet in the mid-1960’s.  This included a ceramics project, where local Inuit were taught how to create a “Northern” style of ceramics which included images of local wildlife.  Today Rankin Inlet continues to be the only community where Inuit artists work with clay and it is all done by hand, there are no spinning wheels.  Many families continue to work in mining and related industries, for the Meadowbank Gold Mine, the new Meliadine Gold Project and other mineral exploration projects in the region.

This is the building from which the weekly, regional newspaper is published

And as the sign says, this is the elementary school in Rankin Inlet.

 With its playground overlooking Williamson Lake which is in the middle of the town

And the town's soccer court is definitely the place to be in the evenings.  Anyone who is old enough to run is welcome to play.

The Anglican Church

The very beautiful, and traditional, cemetery overlooking the water:

The mouth of the Meliadine River shows intensive use by historic Inuit. The Thule people came to the area to fish, building stone weirs to channel the arctic char into shallow water where they could be speared. They hunted caribou and seals in the area, and trapped waterfowl.

About 8 kms northwest of Rankin Inlet there are a series of archaeological sites representing the transition from the Thule culture to the historic Inuit culture.  Iqalugaarjuup Nunanga Territorial Park was established to help preserve and showcase these sites.  I had wanted to go out to the park and wander around on my own, but because of a grizzly bear sighting a few days ago everyone I spoke to strongly recommended against me doing that!  The owners of the place where I stayed though offered to drive me out to the park and show me around a little bit - and seeing as how they were some of the authors of the current interpretation guide for the park they certainly did have a lot to show me --- and it didn't include any close encounters with a grizzly bear!

The Thule culture developed in Alaska about a thousand years ago and rapidly migrated eastward through the Arctic, and they reached the Rankin Inlet area by about 1200 AD.  The Thule people built autumn houses (qarmat) of stone, and tent rings (tupiqarvik) of large stones for their summer tents.  They also built storage caches (pirujarkavik), drying racks (pipsiliuvit), fox traps (pulat), burial cairns (illuvit), and many other features of daily living out of stones and the land.  (Just in case you wanted to learn a little bit of Inuktitut, those are the names of the things in italics.)

Rankin Inlet is also famous because the first Inuk athlete to ever play professional hockey in the NHL grew up here — Jordin Tootoo — right winger, player number 22 ('too too'), currently an unrestricted free agent.  It doesn't take long when you're talking to the residents of Rankin Inlet, especially the kids, to see just how proud they are of him.

An immense stone inukshuk overlooks the downtown area. Representative of the stone figures that guide people on the land, this 15 foot structure was designed by Joe Nattar and built by a team of Inuit in 1991.

Throughout several areas in town, I could see sled dog teams staked out. Some are racing sled dogs used in local races; others are used traditionally for hunting and travelling on the land, though no one now depends on dog teams as the sole means of travel.

Siksik, or Arctic Ground Squirrels live here.  They live in burrows, which have many entrances, but these burrows can be hindered by the permafrost.

These are some more pictures from when I was walking around the town - just to give you an idea.  Definitely a few things seen that one wouldn't see in Toronto!

An overview of the town from the top of a large rock.  As you've probably figured out, the tundra is actually pretty flat here.

This is probably the closest thing to a "sunset" that folks here see during the summer time.  This was at about 11:00pm and as you can see, the sun is still a long way above the horizon.

It was terrible weather on the day that I left Rankin Inlet.  Although it wasn't staying on the ground there was definitely snow in the air, as well as any combination of rain, sleet and hail!   And I now have a whole new understanding of what it means when you hear the term "arctic wind"!!  It was blowing gale force and COLD - I can only imagine what it's like in the winter!!  Despite the weather my flight did still go, and I managed this one last picture of Rankin Inlet just as we were heading into the clouds.