You can see that it is not a large place!
In 1901 an American tourist and industrialist visited the island of Spitsbergen in the Archipelago of Svalbard. He was shown an example of coal from nearby coal mines, and the rest is proverbial history. Buying up the local claims and setting up shop on the coast of the nearby Adventfjorden, John Munro Longyear started up his new venture, the Arctic Coal Company and his base soon became known as Longyear Town, or locally as Longyearbyen, which is our next port of call and can now be seen off the starboard rail.
Rumor has it that this eclectic collection of international peeps has suggested that they change the name of their home twice a year to Longdaybyen and Longnightbyen according to that big yellow thing that is either above the horizon or below it every six months. Currently it is above, giving the region 24 hours of sunlight a day. In between, of course, there are days of a twilight kind of effect…… the light does not act as if the wall switch was just flipped!
Polar bears live here in the winter when the pack ice works its way down this way.
At that time, it is against local regulations to venture out past the town limits without proper protection…. aka a rifle.
Longyearbyen hosts a highly diverse, international community with nearly 50 (!) nationalities represented among its roughly 2,300 residents. This unique demographic makeup is driven by the Svalbard Treaty, which grants citizens of signatory countries the equal right to live and work on the archipelago without a visa or standard Norwegian Residence Permit. They just need to have a job and be able to support themselves.
But…… they cannot die here or be born here!
Yes, if you’re gonna croak best get yourself to the mainland since that’s where you will end up anyway because there are no burials allowed there. The permafrost preserves bodies instead of letting them gradually decompose. This is an issue because if you are carrying baddies in your body then they too are preserved, giving them an opportunity to inadvertently infect again!
As for being born….. there’s nothing to stop that, but the practice is to transfer to the mainland several weeks before your due date because the local clinic is fine for basic medical care but lacks any kind of specialty equipment. Hence the departure, and the hopefully joyful return!
Longyearbyen is considered the northernmost permanent settlement in the world sitting at 78 degrees North Latitude or 816 miles from the North Pole. In comparison, NYC is about 3500 miles from the Pole. There are other research settlements that are farther North, but none of them are ‘permanent’.
More later after our visit to a dog sled camp ….. woof!