Exploring downtown Inuvik, NWT
In this post I’m going to assemble three little tours of downtown Inuvik, starting at 9:35 pm after getting back from Tuktoyaktuk, with a look at some of the public art downtown.
First is a mural painted by Brian Macdonald in 1994 – it shows the Rec Hall, constructed in 1957-58, the first building on Mackenzie Road.
The Mackenzie Road facade of the North Mart has about 30 pieces of art. I think each is by a different artist.
This colourful piece was created by Lisa Alikamik from Ulukhaktok, which is on the west coast of Victoria Island, about 800 km to the northeast of Inuvik.
The beluga hunt is by Alecia Lennie of Inuvik.
This very large mural was painted by Byron M. Thrasher in 2001. It tells the 1930s story of the “Mad Trapper of Rat River.”
It had been a very long day for me, and it was then time to go home. At 10:00 Tuesday morning (April 9th), I took some photos of the crew drilling the ground and installing the pilings for the utilidors on the property beside Tyson’s, then we headed back into town for a bit before starting our drive on the ice road to Aklavik.
The never-ending story, shovelling snow at Inuvik. That’s the famous Igloo Church in the background – we got a tour of it this morning, but that will be the next post.
I haven’t been able to find any information about the airplane mounted beside the Western Arctic Regional Visitor Centre, but as there’s no registration or company logo, I assume there’s nothing special about it specifically. It’s a wind vane.
This is the Western Arctic Regional Visitor Centre beside the plane.
The 51-bed Inuvik Regional Hospital is the only hospital facility in the Beaufort-Delta region.
Multi-lingual stop signs were installed in 2020, but not without some controversy over the Inuvialuktun and Gwich’in words’ actual meanings.
Inuvik used to be well-known for its colourful homes, but the only ones I saw this time was this abandoned row.
It looked like the Inuvik Welcome Centre was open, so we stopped in. Although there were vehicles, the outer door was open and the sign on the door said they should be open, the inner doors were locked.
The large covered area behind the Welcome Centre is used for community events.
When I was coming to Invik 30-40 years ago, the bar at the old Mackenzie Hotel, “The Pit,” was legendary, and not for any good reasons. The new Mackenzie Hotel looks much calmer 🙂
When we arrived back from Aklavik, we finished off the Inuvik touring, starting at the grocery store. My impression is that prices average 50-70% higher than in Whitehorse.
We met the school custodian at the grocery store, where he had gone on a break. We drove him back to work, and had a brief look inside. Three locations were considered as a location when Inuvik was being planned – the one code-named “East Three” was the site chosen.
The McInnes Branch 220 of the Royal Canadian Legion.
The RCMP detachment.
In the next post I’ll show you the Igloo Church outside and inside, from bottom to top.
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For all the snow that falls (not so much per year, but it stays and must endlessly blow around) it does not appear much architectural changes are designed and built to deal with that reality. For the cold, I am sure new building codes for windows, insulation, etc…and utilities, certainly. This city must be on the ‘go’ list for many RV’ers and other adventurers by the new roads. I am as much imagining the big sky feeling of the drive from the Alaskan highway.
I don’t think Tyson and I have discussed construction details, but my impression is that there are few changes from Vancouver building other than building on stilts to protect the permafrost. There are a lot of abandoned buildings, which may indicate that not building fore the climate doesn’t work in the long run. Not many RVers drive very far up the Dempster even though one of the big rental companies, Fraserway, even provides a suggested 8-night itinerary to do it. Perhaps that’s why – 8 nights when everyone is n a hurry. And people seem to get less and less adventurous all the time. Cathy is balking at taking ours up because it’s a whole lot of rough road – I may do it myself. The “big sky” feeling starts as you approach the Mackenzie Delta – and the feeling is quite overpowering some days. To a lesser degree you also get it around Chapman Lake, and I always recommend that people go at least that far because it is so different from Tombstone where most people turn back.
Very interesting. You mentioned grocery prices…. I’ve always liked to compare prices of groceries, gasoline, etc from country to country or even from state to state. For example, gasoline around here is around $3.45/gal whereas in Denver it’s $2.75/gal. Some of that is differences in state taxes but not new all of it.
The gas industry has to be paying off politicians to get away with the shit they do.
O the memories you are bringing back into my historic forgotten, 🍻😁
Speaking of memories, my friend, Stan at Eagle Plains sends greetings! 🙂