Heritage Canada Archives, Churchill. (This PDF file actually contains a picture of the Churchill train station and the train that brought me there.
In June 1968, at age 19, I decided to move to Churchill, Manitoba with the dual objective of teaching the Baha’i Faith and making my own way in the world. I stepped off the train with rubbery legs after four days of that special hell known as Montréal-Churchill coach fare.
Knocking on a few doors, looking for directions to an address given to me by "friends" in Montreal, I was dismayed when doors were repeatedly slammed in my face. Dejected and already regreting my decision, I finally knocked on the door of one Mike Harkin, a devout Catholic and retired Saskatchewan grain farmer who had also been a cop in Ireland. He solemnly informed me that I didn't really want to go to the address given to me as it was a "cat house".
Hearing of my plans to teach the Faith and my penniless plight, Mike cleverly but charitably offered room and board in return for a few odd jobs around the house while I looked for work and a place to live. He also helped me find my first full time job at Imperial Oil slinging oil barrels.
Summer sped by. I moved from Imperial Oil to the Hudson’s Bay Northern Stores (and their employee residence) to the Canadian National Institute for the Blind (and their employee residence). CNIB catered at the rocket range at Fort Churchill.
The last time I visited Mike was the evening he invited me to dinner and I walked in only to be surprised to find 2 priests, a nun, a brother and a lay missionary: all invited by Mike to "save me from that heathen religion". Needless to say, at 19 years of age I was no match for their collective zeal and I left Mike’s upset and depressed.
I realized that I needed a lot more deepening before I would be ready to teach. I also realized that there was no long term future for me in Churchill, and so, when the first snow flakes fell in September, I decided to move on to warmer climes.
Although we parted on less amicable terms, I owe that lean, leathery Irishman a debt I can never repay. I hope he is playing Cribbage and getting 29's in heaven right now.
Churchill and its environs provided me with such a wealth of novel experiences that I can only scratch the surface with a web page. Experiences like riding the back of a small whale out in the bay, eating blubber and other Inuit delicacies (not), observing polar bears at the dump, evading polar bears rooting for goodies on Churchill streets, watching the play of the Northern Lights through waves of black flies, working the "train day" at the Hudson Bay Co., watching small rockets fire chemicals into the stratosphere, meeting a whole host of fascinating (and stir crazy) notherners, etc.
I hope some of the following links provide you with a taste of what you would have experienced had you followed the same path as mine in 1968. Just click on the polar bear.
Heritage Canada Archives, Churchill. (This PDF file actually contains a picture of the Churchill train station and the train that brought me there.
Polar Bear Capitol of the World. (Another man's trip to Churchill. This fellow had it easy, he only took the train from Winnipeg.)
The Churchill Manitoba Polar Bear Trip. (A lady's recollection of her trip.)
Historic Hudson's Bay Company
Hudson's Bay Company Archives
Auroral Images, Fort Churchill
Riding Leviathan
Riding a Right Whale.
History of whale hunting.
Churchill, Organized Links
Bear country journal, Alice Ramirez
Polar Bears of Churchill, Manitoba: Franklin Travel
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