Iqaluit ᐃᖃᓗᐃᑦ

Sister cities

• Çeşme

History

Iqaluit has been a traditional fishing location used by Inuit and their predecessors, the Paleo-Eskimo (Dorset culture) and Thule, for thousands of years. The name, Iqaluit, comes from Inuktitut (), which means . World War II caused an influx of non-Inuit to the area when in 1942, the United States built Frobisher Bay Air Base there, on a long-term lease from the Government of Canada, in order to provide a stop-over and refuelling site for the short-range aircraft being ferried to Europe to support the war effort. Iqaluit's first permanent resident was Nakasuk, an Inuk guide who helped United States Army Air Forces planners to choose a site with a large flat area suitable for a landing strip. The wartime airstrip was known as Crystal Two and was part of the Crimson Route. It operates today as Iqaluit Airport. The US and Canadian authorities named it Frobisher Bay, after the name of the body of water it borders. In 1949, after the war, the Hudson's Bay Company moved its south Baffin operations to the neighbouring valley of Niaqunngut, officially called Apex, in order to use the airfield. In the mid-1950s, the population of Frobisher Bay increased rapidly during the construction of the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW line), a system of defensive radar stations—see NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command). Hundreds of mostly non-Inuit construction workers, military personnel, and administrative staff moved into the community, and several hundred Inuit followed, to take advantage of the access to jobs and medical care provided by the base operations. By 1957, 489 of the town's 1,200 residents were reported to be Inuit. After 1959, the Canadian government established permanent services at Frobisher Bay, including full-time doctors, a school, and social…

Geography

Iqaluit is the northernmost city in Canada, at 63 degrees north of the Equator. Iqaluit is located in the Everett Mountains, which rise from Koojesse Inlet, Although it is north of the natural tree line, there are some short, south-facing imported black spruce (Picea mariana) specimens protected by snowdrifts in the winter, in addition to a few shrubs, which are woody plants. These include the Arctic willow (Salix arctica). The Arctic willow may be up to around horizontally, but only tall. The climate of Iqaluit is also colder than Gulf Stream locations on the same latitude. For example, the Norwegian city of Trondheim has an annual mean temperature that is milder. The lowest temperature ever recorded was on 10 February 1967.

Most-observed species

• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  889
• Snow Bunting

  Plectrophenax nivalis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  729
• Glaucous Gull

  Larus hyperboreus Gunnerus, 1767 · Aves
  559
• American herring gull, Smithsonian Gull

  Larus smithsonianus Coues, 1862 · Aves
  348
• Lapland Longspur

  Calcarius lapponicus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  311
• American Pipit

  Anthus rubescens (Tunstall, 1771) · Aves
  300
• Canada Goose (canadensis Group)

  Branta canadensis (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  235
• Common Redpoll

  Acanthis flammea (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  193