Cape Bathurst (

Inuit Inuit (; iu, ᐃᓄᐃᑦ 'the people', singular: Inuk, , dual: Inuuk, ) are a group of culturally similar indigenous peoples inhabiting the Arctic and subarctic regions of Greenland, Labrador, Quebec, Nunavut, the Northwest Territories ...

: ''Awaq'') is a cape and a peninsula located on the northern coast of the Northwest Territories in

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. Cape Bathurst is the northernmost point of mainland Northwest Territories and one of the few peninsulas in mainland North America protruding above the

70th parallel north The 70th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 70 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane, in the Arctic. It crosses the Atlantic Ocean, Europe, Asia and North America, and passes through some of the southern seas of the Arc ...

. The first European to see the area was John Richardson, who also named it, in 1826. Some coast areas of Cape Bathurst are being eroded at a rate of a year.

Baillie Island The Baillie Islands (Inuvialuktun: ''Utkraluk'') are located off the north coast of Cape Bathurst in the Northwest Territories, Canada. The islands formed part of the area used by the Avvaqmiut who are a branch of the Inuvialuit (Mackenzie Inuit) ...

is located just off the coast of Cape Bathurst, separated from the peninsula by a shallow strait. A notable nearby formation is

Smoking Hills The Smoking Hills are located on the east coast of Cape Bathurst in Canada's Northwest Territories, next to the Arctic Ocean and a small group of lakes. The cliffs were named by explorer John Franklin, who was the first European to see them on hi ...

, a group of hills exhibiting continuous burning of

oil shale Oil shale is an organic-rich fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be produced. In addition to kerogen, general composition of oil shales constitut ...

deposits. A rare

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found else ...

plant known as hairy rockcress or hairy braya (''

Braya pilosa ''Braya pilosa'' is a long-lived perennial flowering plant of the mustard family known by the common name hairy braya. It has one to many stems 4–12 cm long, erect to ascending to almost prostrate and moderately to densely hairy, and can ...

'', genus

Braya ''Braya'' is a genus of plants in the family Brassicaceae. *'' Braya alpina'' Sternb. & Hoppe *'' Braya fernaldii'' Abbe *'' Braya forrestii'' W.W.Sm. *'' Braya glabella'' Richardson *'' Braya humilis'' (C.A. Mey.) B.L. Rob. *'' Braya linearis'' ...

of family

Brassicaceae Brassicaceae () or (the older) Cruciferae () is a medium-sized and economically important family of flowering plants commonly known as the mustards, the crucifers, or the cabbage family. Most are herbaceous plants, while some are shrubs. The leav ...

) is known to grow in five locations on Cape Bathurst as well as the nearby Baillie Islands. The plant is listed by the Northwest Territories Species at Risk Committee as threatened and by the

Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC, French: Comité sur la situation des espèces en péril au Canada, COSEPAC) is an independent committee of wildlife experts and scientists whose "raison d'être is to identify s ...

as endangered.Hairy Braya NWT Species Status Report
/ref>COSEWIC Assessment and Status Report on the Hairy Braya Braya pilosa in Canada
/ref>

In fiction and popular culture

Cape Bathurst features as a key location in Jules Verne's novel

The Fur Country ''The Fur Country'' (french: Le Pays des fourrures) or ''Seventy Degrees North Latitude'' is an adventure novel by Jules Verne in The Extraordinary Voyages series, first published in 1873. The novel was serialized in ''Magasin d’Éducation et ...

. In this novel, Cape Bathurst is not a fixed geographical feature but is instead a large iceberg anchored to the continent. A

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC; french: Compagnie de la Baie d'Hudson) is a Canadian retail business group. A fur trading business for much of its existence, HBC now owns and operates retail stores in Canada. The company's namesake business di ...

expedition is ordered to establish a fort above the

to support fur trapping. The expedition leaders are misled by the appearances of Cape Bathurst into thinking it is a favorable place for settlement. For all intents the cape appears to be very suitable since it has fresh water and is well wooded, with rich soil, vegetation, and abundant wildlife. After building Fort Good Hope they prepare to winter over. During the winter, a volcanic eruption occurs nearby, and unknown to the settlers, the link to the continent is broken and the iceberg "Cape Bathurst" floats into the Arctic Ocean, carrying away the novel's protagonists.

References

Peninsulas of the Northwest Territories {{NorthwestTerritories-geo-stub