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centred over Churchill Manitoba.]] Churchill ( to the south, and the Arctic Tundra to the north. It is most famous for the many Polar Bear s that move toward the shore from inland in the Autumn , leading to the nickname "Polar Bear Capital of the World" that has helped its growing Tourism industry. Canada's only main port on the Arctic Ocean , Churchill is linked to the rest of the country only by the Hudson Bay Railway . HISTORY A variety of nomadic Arctic people lived and hunted in this region. The Thule People arrived around 1000 A.D. from farther west, and later evolved into the present-day Inuit culture. The Dene people arrived around 500 from farther north. Since before the time of Europe an contact, the region around Churchill has been predominantly inhabited by the Chipewyan and Cree peoples. Europeans first arrived in the area in 1619 when a Danish expedition led by Jens Munk wintered where Churchill would later stand. Only 3 of 64 expedition members survived the winter and journeyed back to Denmark.http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2003/02/daily-02-20-2003.shtml The first permanent settlement was a log fort built at the mouth of the Churchill River in 1717 as a part of the extensive fur-trading network established by the Hudson's Bay Company — mostly to capitalize on the northern trade, out of the reach of York Factory . The town gains its name from John Churchill, 1st Duke Of Marlborough , an ancestor of Winston Churchill , who was governor of the Hudson's Bay Company in the late 1600s . The company replaced it with Prince Of Wales Fort , a large stone fort finished in 1741 . The fort was taken without firing a shot by French warships and razed in 1782 , and a new fort was built a short distance upriver. It dealt mainly with the Chipewyan peoples living north of the boreal forest. Due to its distance from the lands of heavy competition between the North-West Company and the Hudson's Bay Company , it remained a relatively stable, if not extravagantly profitable, source of furs. Between the years of decline in the fur trade and surfacing of western agricultural success, Churchill phased into and then back out of obsolescence. After decades of frustration over the monopoly and domination of the Canadian Pacific Railway and then the false promises of the Canadian Northern Railway , western governments banded together and fought for the creation of a major new northern shipping harbour on Hudson Bay, linked by rail from Winnipeg . Initially Port Nelson was selected for this purpose in 1912. After several years of effort and millions of dollars, this project was abandoned and Churchill was selected as the alternative after World War One. Surveys by the Canadian Hydrographic Service ship CSS Acadia opened the way for safe navigation. However, construction and use of the railroad was extremely slow and the rail line itself did not come to Churchill until 1929 . Even once the link from farm to port was completed, commercial shipping took many more years to pick up. In 1932 John Walter Grant MacEwan was the first person to cross through Churchill customs as a passenger. This was purely due to his determination in taking the Hudson Bay route home from Britain — most passengers returned via the Saint Lawrence River . This area was also the site of the Churchill Rocket Research Range , part of Canadian-American atmospheric research. Its first rocket was launched in 1956 , and it continued to host launches for research and commercial satellites until closing in 1984 . The site of the former rocket range now hosts the Churchill Northern Studies Centre , a facility for Arctic research. See Fort Churchill for the main article on this subject. INDUSTRY Churchill is a popular spot for Ecotourism , as well as for Arctic research. Tourists can safely view polar bears from specially modified buses known as ''tundra buggies''. Use of the buggies helps sustain local tourism, but can also cause damage to local ecology. October and early November are the most popular times to see the bears, which wait around the outskirts of the town until the water freezes on Hudson Bay so that they can return to hunt their primary food source, seals. Churchill is also a reliable place to watch Beluga Whales during the summer months. The sea freezes first near Churchill because of the large volume of fresh water delivered by the nearby Churchill and Seal Rivers and because the predominant northeast wind causes ice to pile up along the shore just north of Churchill. For this reason, the port is iced in for much of the year but it is useful for shipping grain and other bulk cargoes because shipping by rail costs several times as much, per ton, as shipping by sea. Another hindrance to Churchill becoming a main shipping port is the prominence of Canadian southern-bound trade with the United States . TRANSPORTATION The town is the northern terminus of the Hudson Bay Railway Leased by OmniTRAX . It is a useful link in the export of Canadian grain to European markets, with rail-sea connections made at Churchill. The port of Churchill, also owned by OmniTRAX and run by the General Manager, ''Lyle Fetterly''. It is Canada's principal Seaport on the Arctic Ocean . Churchill is the main Arctic Ocean seaport in North America with a rail connection to the south. Lesser ports Moosonee , Ontario and Hay River , Northwest Territories also provide a rail link to the Arctic Ocean. Hay River is a Riverport . Cargo shipped north from Hay River travels by barge. There are currently no roads from Churchill leading to the rest of Canada . There is an Airport east of town with daily flights to Winnipeg, and the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut . LOCAL MEDIA Radio CHFC 1230 AM - CBC Radio One Churchill has its own radio show every Wednesday night on CBC Radio One. Shot For Shot Wednesday is hosted by Churchill native Joseph Stover and Newfoundland native Sonny Ennis. Listeners enjoy a mixture of comic relief and great music. Also every morning from 8:15-8:30, David Caskey hosts the local morning announcement program. Television Newspapers Churchill has one newspaper called ''The Hudson Bay Post''. It is a monthly published newspaper. FAMOUS PEOPLE FROM CHURCHILL, MANITOBA
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