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Gjoa Haven
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Northwest Passage Territorial Park

The park consists of six areas that show in part the history of the exploration of the Northwest Passage and the first successful passage by Amundsen. The first area is the Nattilik Heritage Centre. As of 2020, it's marked for expansion to include a proper museum; a replica of the Gjøa is already in display. The second is the actual harbour. The third area is the old Hudson’s Bay trading post, established in 1927 and still in use today by The North West Company. The fourth (and the one marked in this page's map) is a cairn dedicated to Amundsen, with a bronze memorial plaque describing his life, his ship and his journey. Amundsen erected here a few temporary buildings, whose only evidence remaining today are some earth mounds. The fifth area is a at the island's northern shore, believed to be one of the burial places of members of John Franklin's crew. The final area is about 90 km north, a shelter where Amundsen made observations on the North Magnetic Pole. He used a marble slab as observation point, and also erected a cairn here, to honor his teacher George Von Neumayer. Years later, the Hudson’s Bay Co. rebuilt the cairn – the marble slab remains intact to this day.

Listing from Wikivoyage: Gjoa Haven, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Updated 28 Sept 2026. Something wrong? Tell us.