Northwest Passage Park

Northwest Passage Historical Park

The Northwest Passage Park is an interpretive centre and walking trail that takes you to many locations important in the discovery of the Northwest Passage. Many explorers searched for the Northwest Passage. The Northwest Passage is a route that was to open up trade and travel to the Orient from the Old World. Some of those famous Arctic explorers include:

• Martin Frobisher
• John Davis
• Henry Hudson
• Edward Parry
• John Ross
• John Franklin
• Robert McClure
• Richard Collinson
• Roald Amundsen

Arctic adventurer Roald Amundsen was the first European explorer to successfully navigate the Northwest Passage in his boat the Gjoa. Many feel his success was due to using arctic survival methods such as hunting, fishing and toolmaking that he learned from the Nattilik people he met when he wintered in the area now known as Gjoa Haven. The Northwest Passage Park displays:

• a miniature replica of Amundsen's ship, The Gjoa.
• traditional tools such as uluit (knives) and kakivait (spears)
• caribou clothing and water containers
• a traditional kayak
• photos taken by one of Amundsen's crew during his stay in Gjoa Haven
• historical information about the Nattilik people.
• the "magnet," a shelter Amundsen used in his observations of the North Magnetic Pole
• the "observatory" Amundsen built to house his scientific instruments
• where Amundsen ship the Gjoa wintered on its journey through the Northwest Passage

The Gjoa Haven area is also associated with the Lost Franklin Expedition. The explorer John Franklin disappeared in 1850 on King William island while he was trying to find the Northwest Passage. Many elders in Gjoa Haven are living histories of the time qallunaat (Franklin and his crew) came in their tall ships.

The Northwest Passage Park also contains the grave sites of some members of Franklin's crew.

The Northwest Passage Park Information Centre

Amundsen's ship-The Gjoa

Roald Amundsen- the first explorer to travel through the Northwest Passage

Lost Franklin Expedition gravesite

Sir John Franklin's ships- The Erebus and the Terror