If I encounter a polar bear I’m supposed to stay calm. Really? I’m supposed to back away slowly, facing the bear at all times. The worst thing to do: run. No problem. I’m so encased in down and polar fleece, I can barely walk. My best escape plan is to locate the nearest vehicle or house. People in Churchill leave everything unlocked, I’m told, just for this scary possibility.
Churchill, Manitoba clings to a strip of land along the shores of Hudson Bay. It’s home to approximately 1,000 hardy people who, at different times of the year, live in close proximity to over 1,000 polar bears from the Western Hudson Bay. Churchill is Canada’s northernmost sub arctic seaport and can be reached by plane or a thirty-some hour train ride from Winnipeg. There are no roads to Churchill.
Churchill is the site of Prince of Wales Fort: the first permanent settlement in the area and now a national historic site of Canada. It was built in the 1700s to protect fur trading interests of the Hudson Bay Company. In 1782, three French warships surprised the fort and its governor surrendered without incident. The French abandoned the fort and it was never occupied again.