HISTORY

During the year 982 A.D., the famous Norseman, Eric the Red, a Scandinavian by birth, left Iceland with a band of sea-farers and sailed westward until he reached the southern tip of Greenland at Cape Farewell. Eric led his band northward along the western shore, seeking likely spots for settlements. Favorite areas of settlement by the Norsemen were on the west coast near Julianehaab, and in the vicinity of the present day capital of Godthaab.

For some unknown reason the Norse settlements died out. Some historians say that the Norsemen were assimilated into the various Eskimo cultures which were there long before Eric the Red had landed. It is also possible that warfare between rival groups depleted the numbers of Norsemen, and the few remaining survivors gave up their settlements, and returned to Iceland and Europe.

The next permanent link between the Eskimos and Western civilization began when the Danish Missionary, Hans Egede, came to Greenland in the year 1721. Although several Danish settlements were established during the years, Denmark’s Right of Sovereignty was not recognized until 1933.

The present day inhabitant of Central and Southern Greenland is a combination of Scandinavian and Eskimo ancestry, and is called a Greenlander. His culture, like his ancestry, is a result of the assimilation of these widely divergent cultures.

Until Western civilization came to Greenland, the Eskimos’s entire economy was based upon the natural resources of the land. Being a fierce and valiant hunter, he was able to supply his required needs of clothing, shelter, household implements, and hunting equipment from the skins, furs, bones, and teeth of the animals he killed. He found an abundance of seal, walrus, polar bear, and an occasional whale which wandered near the shore. The Eskimo ordinarily lives in huts made of sod and animal skins, using the snow hut only on hunting trips. Obviously, his diet was made up of the meat of the animals and fish that he killed. The Eskimo family .is a completely self-sufficient, self-sustaining economic unit. However, due to the gradual warming of the northward sea currents through the years, native Eskimos are today found only in the northern sections of Greenland, where the cold weather animals have migrated through the centuries.

Today, Greenland has a population of more than 23,000 inhabitants. A sizable fishing and shipping industry, a southern grazing land with more than 10,000 sheep, a fish cannery, and the world’s only cryolite mine, compose most of Greenland’s modern economy.

GEOGRAPHY

Considering Australia as a continent, Greenland is the world’s largest island, extending for more than 1700 miles from north to south The northern tip of the island is only 425 iles from toward the coastal areas in slow moving streams of hard snow-ice called glaciers. These glaciers often cut deep gorges enroute to the sea. These gorges are called fjords. Where the distance from the ice cap to the sea is short, the slow moving glacier pushes huge chunks of ice into the sea, forming the large icebergs which menace North Atlantic shipping lanes. Although most icebergs are relatively small, some of them have been known to reach proportions of several square miles.

If you are interested in complete details of Greenland’ B history and geography, there is excellent coverage in any of the many books about Greenland by the late Peter Freuchen. Mr, Freuchen, in fact, was a renowned authority on Grenland’s Eskimo cultures, having lived among the Eskimos in the Arctic regions for most of his life.

CLIMATE AND UNUSUAL CONDITIONS

At your first thought of Greenland, the first thing that probably enters your mind is the year ‘round living in arctic and subarctic temperatures and snows. However, you will find the climate at Thule to be not quite as severe as imagined, It will probably be comforting for you to learn that summertime temperatures at Thule Air Base have reached as high as 62 degrees above zero. The lowest recorded winter temperature was 47 degrees below zero. However, these are extreme temperatures.

The summer average holds at several degrees above the freezing point, while the coldest months, February and March, very rarely average colder temperatures than 12 to 15 degrees below zero. The humidity is extremely low during the winter months; even drier than the arid areas of the southwestern United States, This is good news to those of you who may have wished for a drier climate because of sinus or hay fever, The snowfall is relatively light, with most of the accumulation resulting from the snows drifting from the ice cap. There is one severe aspect of Thule’s climatic conditions. This occurs during phase activity, which takes place when certain low pressure systems are so situated that a high velocity wind sweeps across the Base from the ice cap. Phase activity is divided into three categories, and a base-wide communication system involving radio, telephone, and television is used to inform all base inhabitants of the current phase, and of what precautions are necessary to safeguard personnel and equipment. These phase conditions are covered in more detail in the “Living at Site” chapter.

If you arrive at Thule in mid-December, you will be “in the dark” for at least a month. For three months, beginning in November, the sun remains completely out of view below the horizon. Sunrise, which is eagerly awaited, comes after mid-February. During the dark period, there is a small sliver of light visible on the southern horizon. From late November until February this light is hardly more than a glimmer. During these dark months, the moon is usually visible, circling around the dark sky, and going through all of its regular phases.

Once the sun makes its appearance, it stays in the sky longer each day until, in May, it completely replaces the moon. Then for three and one-half months, the sun remains above the horizon 24 hours a day. It circles the sky in the same manner as the moon does in the winter-high in its southern arc, and low in its northern sweep.

The summer sun is extremely brilliant at Thule, and you are advised to wear sunglasses, especially during the period of light before the snow has melted. Glasses with dark lenses are recommended. Polaroid and other plastic lenses do not offer protection against snow blindness. Insufficient protection can result in ultraviolet burns on the eyes which usually causes temporary blindness, but can also cause permanent damage.

Although the snows at Thule do melt each summer, the permanent ice cap, which is located eight miles away, remains almost unchanged. Thule is located on North Star Bay on Greenland’s west coast, 921 statute miles from the North Pole. On the bay’s edge there is a port for sea-going vessels, and adjoining the port are the air base buildings and flying-field area. You will be surprised to learn that Thule is actually closer to Seattle (2457 miles) than it is to New York(2477). Moreover, Thule is north of the Magnetic Pole, which is situated on Canada’s Prince of Wales Island, which is 724 miles west-southwest of Thule.

Thule is centered along the most direct aerial routes from European Russia to the United States, and is only 2760 miles from Moscow.

Scattered in all directions are the outlying stations which depend upon Thule for aerial supply. On the Canadian island of Ellesmere, which is north of Thule, there are two small, joint Canadian-American weather stations known as Eureka and Alert. The latter station in the northernmost permanently inhabited outpost in the world.

There is a time differential of one hour between Thule and New York City. Eastern Standard Time in the U.S. is one hour behind Thule time. If it is six o‘clock in the evening in New York, it is seven o‘clock at Thule.