Rigolet ( Inuttitut: ''Tikigâksuagusik'') (population 310) is a remote, coastal

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

community established in 1735 by French-Canadian trader

Louis Fornel Louis Fornel (August 20, 1698 – May 30, 1745) was a Canadian people, Canadian merchant, explorer, and Seigneurial system of New France, seigneur in New France. Involved in maritime trade and both born and married into prominent Quebec families, ...

. The town is the southernmost officially recognized

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 ...

community in the world. Located on

Hamilton Inlet __NOTOC__ Hamilton Inlet is a fjord-like inlet of Groswater Bay on the Labrador coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Together with Lake Melville, it forms its province's largest estuary, extending over inland to Happy V ...

, which is at the entrance to fresh water

Lake Melville Lake Melville is an estuary of Hamilton Inlet (itself an extension of Groswater Bay) on the Labrador coast of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Comprising and stretching inland to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, it forms part of th ...

; Rigolet is on salt water and is accessible to navigation during the winter. Although there is no road access, the community is accessible by snowmobile trail, the Rigolet Airport, or seasonally via a coastal ferry (MV Kamutik W) from

Happy Valley-Goose Bay Happy Valley-Goose Bay (Inuit: ''Vâli'') is a town in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. Located in the central part of Labrador on the coast of Lake Melville and the Churchill River, Happy Valley-Goose Bay is the largest popul ...

. The

Hudson 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 div ...

established its trading post in Rigolet in 1836. The Hudson Bay Company remained an active part of the community until 1987 when it was bought by the North West Company and was renamed the "Northern Store". Rigolet is part of the Labrador Inuit Land Claims area and is overseen by the Nunatsiavut government. Approximately 5% of Rigolet's population is non Inuit. Although there are still coniferous trees surrounding the village, a few kilometres northeast into Hamilton Inlet, the terrain changes drastically to a sub-arctic

tundra In physical geography, tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. The term ''tundra'' comes through Russian (') from the Kildin Sámi word (') meaning "uplands", "treeless mou ...

. Minke and

humpback whale The humpback whale (''Megaptera novaeangliae'') is a species of baleen whale. It is a rorqual (a member of the family Balaenopteridae) and is the only species in the genus ''Megaptera''. Adults range in length from and weigh up to . The hu ...

s are commonly observed in nearby waters. In

John Wyndham John Wyndham Parkes Lucas Beynon Harris (; 10 July 1903 – 11 March 1969) was an English science fiction writer best known for his works published under the pen name John Wyndham, although he also used other combinations of his names ...

's post-apocalyptic novel ''

The Chrysalids ''The Chrysalids'' (United States title: ''Re-Birth'') is a science fiction novel by British writer John Wyndham, first published in 1955 by Michael Joseph. It is the least typical of Wyndham's major novels, but regarded by some as his best. A ...

'', set at an unspecified future date, Rigolet has become the town of Rigo and the capital of Labrador (which is one of the few habitable areas left in North America). Rigolet is home to the longest

boardwalk A boardwalk (alternatively board walk, boarded path, or promenade) is an elevated footpath, walkway, or causeway built with wooden planks that enables pedestrians to cross wet, fragile, or marshy land. They are also in effect a low type of brid ...

in North America. Rigolet's boardwalk stretches over 8 km, from Rigolet to Double Mer Point. The first phase of the boardwalk was completed in 1997 and the last extension of the boardwalk was completed in 2015.

Demographics

In the

2021 Census of Population The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, which is sli ...

conducted by Statistics Canada, Rigolet had a population of living in of its total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of . With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

References

External links

Nunatsiavut Government homepageOfficial site of the Town of RigoletInformation on area ferry servicesLabrador road, trail and ferry mapRigolet - Encyclopedia of Newfoundland and Labrador, vol. 4, p. 599-600.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rigolet, Newfoundland and Labrador Inuit community governments in Newfoundland and Labrador Populated coastal places in Canada Populated places in Labrador Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Road-inaccessible communities of Newfoundland and Labrador

Demographics

See also

References

External links