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During the 1920s and 30s there was a RCMP detachment at Pearce Point during
the summer months when the Inuit maintained a seasonal hunting camp.

Arctic 2002: Pearse Point

Trish
2004-01-08 21:46:05

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I've run into Grizzlies
in the Canadian Rockies, but a hungry Arctic grizzly eager to store fat for
the winter may be a different concept. I was quite happy to go outside
again.

Behind the hut was one last hill. We climbed up to gain a view of the other
side. Rising over the crest, we saw what I can only believe was a very large
plug of volcanic rock, rising vertically a great distance from a still lake,
the outside rock of the volcano long weathered away. I believe this to be
volcanic based on the occurrence on basaltic rock in imperfect hexagonal
columns formed during cooling that were visible in the nearby cliffs and on
the face of the plug itself. Here again, scientific description fails to
convey the grandeur of what I saw.

If Canada were ever to build a castle, defensible from all forms of medieval
warfare, this would be the place to construct one more impregnable than any
in history. The sides of the plug rise vertically in cliffs to a relatively
flat surface hundreds of meters above the lake. In my fantasy castle, its
only connection to the mainland would have to be a swinging rope bridge,
delicately spanning the drop below. In my head I'm combining the book on
14th century history I've been reading with Northern Ireland's Carrick-a
-Rede Bridge and Scotland's Dunnotar Castle, perhaps inspired by the
similar, though much grander, geology I see here. But I blink, and my
fantasy vanishes.

Before me lies the steep, inaccessible cliffs rising up
out of the waters. There will be no castle at Pearce Point, this is not a
human place and the very few that have adapted to live here are not castle
builders. There are no cities to defend, for the Arctic defends itself, its
natural citadel rising to face me in sheer majesty. The lesson of the
Arctic has been that we have only a small place on this planet, while our
civilizations have risen and fallen in the south, the arctic has remained
inviolate, subject to forces greater than those of man.

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