Kimmirut ( Syllabics: ᑭᒻᒥᕈᑦ ; known as Lake Harbour until 1 January 1996) is a community in the

Qikiqtaaluk Region The Qikiqtaaluk Region, Qikiqtani Region (Inuktitut syllabics: ᕿᑭᖅᑖᓗᒃ ) or Baffin Region is the easternmost, northernmost, and southernmost administrative region of Nunavut, Canada. Qikiqtaaluk is the traditional Inuktitut name f ...

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...

, Canada. It is located on the shore of

Hudson Strait Hudson Strait (french: Détroit d'Hudson) links the Atlantic Ocean and Labrador Sea to Hudson Bay in Canada. This strait lies between Baffin Island and Nunavik, with its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley in Newfoundland and Labrador and ...

Baffin Island Baffin Island (formerly Baffin Land), in the Canadian territory of Nunavut, is the largest island in Canada and the fifth-largest island in the world. Its area is , slightly larger than Spain; its population was 13,039 as of the 2021 Canadia ...

Meta Incognita Peninsula The Meta Incognita Peninsula is located on southern Baffin Island in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. It is bounded by Hudson Strait to the south, and Frobisher Bay to the north. The hamlet of Kimmirut is on the Hudson Strait on the southern co ...

. Kimmirut means "heel", and refers to a rocky outcrop in the inlet. It was at one time 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 ...

trading post, and a

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; french: Gendarmerie royale du Canada; french: GRC, label=none), commonly known in English as the Mounties (and colloquially in French as ) is the federal and national police service of Canada. As poli ...

post. The Canadian explorer J. Dewey Soper used these posts as headquarters during his explorations in the 1920s and 1930s. The community is served by

Kimmirut Airport Kimmirut Airport is located at Kimmirut, Nunavut, Canada, and is operated by the Government of Nunavut. Unlike most airports in Nunavut, it uses magnetic headings for the runway rather than true headings. At the Kimmirut airstrip is the seco ...

and by annual supply

sealift Sealift is a term used predominantly in military logistics and refers to the use of cargo ships for the deployment of military assets, such as weaponry, vehicles, military personnel, and supplies. It complements other means of transport, such a ...

. A proposal in 2005 for a road to

Iqaluit Iqaluit ( ; , ; ) is the capital of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian territory of Nunavut, its largest community, and its only city. It was known as Frobisher Bay from 1942 to 1987, after the Frobisher Bay, large bay on the c ...

was determined to be impractical owing to roundabout routing over the mountains.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; french: Statistique Canada), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and cultu ...

, Kimmirut 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.

Image gallery

Image:kimmirut-boat-launch.jpg, Boat launch in Kimmirut. The "heel" can be seen to the left. 2006 File:Hudson's Bay Company in Lake Harbour (now called Kimmirut), Baffin Island (1922).jpg, Hudson's Bay Company in Lake Harbour, 1922 Image:kimmirut-HBC.jpg, Hudson's Bay Company, 2006 Image:kimmirut-soper-house.jpg, The Soper House dates back to the 1930s. 2006. Image:kimmirut-2006.jpg, View of Kimmirut, 2006 Image:Over looking Hudson's Straight Inlet.jpg , View of Southeast Kimmirut, 2017

Broadband communications

The community has been served by the Qiniq network since 2005. Qiniq is a fixed wireless service to homes and businesses, connecting to the outside world via a satellite backbone. The Qiniq network is designed and operated by

SSI Micro SSi Canada (formerly known as SSi Micro Ltd.) is a Canadian wireless broadband internet service provider primarily serving remote areas that lack terrestrial service options. SSi was established in 1990 by Jeffrey Philipp and is headquartered in Y ...

. In 2017, the network was upgraded to 4G LTE technology, and 2G-GSM for mobile voice.

Climate

Kimmirut has an

Arctic climate The climate of the Arctic is characterized by long, cold winters and short, cool summers. There is a large amount of variability in climate across the Arctic, but all regions experience extremes of solar radiation in both summer and winter. Som ...

( Köppen: ET), although it is well outside the

Arctic Circle The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle. The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at ...

. The city has cold winters and short summers that are too cool to permit the growth of trees. It is north of the

tree line The tree line is the edge of the habitat at which trees are capable of growing. It is found at high elevations and high latitudes. Beyond the tree line, trees cannot tolerate the environmental conditions (usually cold temperatures, extreme snow ...

, and average monthly temperatures are below freezing for eight months of the year. Kimmirut averages just over of precipitation annually, wetter than many other localities in the

Arctic Archipelago The Arctic Archipelago, also known as the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, is an archipelago lying to the north of the Canadian continental mainland, excluding Greenland (an autonomous territory of Denmark). Situated in the northern extremity of No ...

, with the summer being the wettest season.

Notable residents

Joe Arlooktoo Joe Arlooktoo (born June 26, 1939) is a northern Canadian artist, adept at soapstone and ivory carving, and a municipal and territorial-level politician who was a member of the Northwest Territories Legislature from 1979 until 1991. He is a curr ...

Nakasuk Nakasuk (Inuktitut syllabics: ᓇᑲᓱᒃ ) was an Inuk who was born at a sealing camp near Pangnirtung, Northwest Territories (now Nunavut) in the early 20th century and grew up around Kimmirut (formerly ''Lake Harbour''). He assisted a US ...

* Anna Kingwatsiak * Oopik Pitsuilak * Pudlo Pudlat * Jamasie Teevee

References

External links

Official site - about

Photos of RCMP and HBC employees
{{Authority control Populated places in Baffin Island Hudson's Bay Company trading posts in Nunavut Hamlets in the Qikiqtaaluk Region Road-inaccessible communities of Nunavut