After four months of winter darkness, the site at P-mountain was the first place one could see the sun come up each February. The Greenlandic name for the mountain which started with the letter P---- was so long and difficult to pronounce that it was simply called P-mountain !!

In early November 1967, an Inuit hunter showed up at the hospital with a young husky that had injured his rear leg. Unfortunately the leg was severely frozen and after attempting to save it, the hospital surgeon and myself had to amputate the leg. The young husky recovered quickly and could get around quite well and even could pull a small sled loaded with about 30 lbs. However the hunter was not very interested in a three legged sled dog so the hospital commander with the base commanders blessing decided that the dispensary needed a mascot and that the base vet (myself) would take care of him. He was quickly named "Herbie" and soon became the favourite of the nurses and was quite well known on the base. He was also quite popular with the USO groups that visited the base and I was told that he was taken back to the States by a USO entertainer in 1971 and spend his final days on the east coast-Boston area

This is Dr. Ron Milnarik skiing down a slope on North Mountain in the spring of 1968. Ron was one of the dentists at the hospital and we shared many interests about the arctic. Ron was also a great photographer during his time at Thule and he took many of the pictures shown here. We have kept in contact ever since our first assignment at Thule and still get together for Husky-F----- reunions

This is Greg Burrows who was the leader of the geopole station located on North Mountain in 1968. Greg had a degree in Physics from the University of Maryland and is a big fan of Banjo(Blue Grass) music! Together with Ron Milnarik, the three of us had many "interesting" experiences while a Thule. Greg had access to the stations jeep so the three of us, together with "Herbie" covered many miles in and about TAB. We were also charter members of the Husky F------- Club

This grave site is located close to the harbour. The seaman who is buried here, Wm. Sharps, was on the British ship HMS North Star which overwintered here in 1849. According to written accounts, the ships captain, James Saunders, did not allow much contact with the native Inuit in the area and as a result 4 seaman died of scurvy that winter due to the lack of fresh meat

In July 1968, one of our expeditions was with the geopole stations jeep where we drove to a small valley just south of the Coast Guard Loran Station at Cape Atholl. After several hours of driving through rocky terrain with no vegetation, we suddenly came to a little valley that was so different with lush vegetation and we immediately called it "Magic Valley" After hiking about 30 minutes we came to the coast line which was lined with cliffs teeming with thousands of small birds (little auk / sea-kings) in their summer nesting areas. These birds had been migrating here for hundreds of years and as a result the area had been fertilized allowing for the lush vegetation to develop. We really loved our weekend here, it was so much different from the rest of the rock-strewn areas around TAB. We even tried our hand at catching some of the sea-birds with a net we had loaned from our Inuit friends but only caught 2 birds after 4 hours. Luckly we had phase-rations with us so we didn't starve.......

One of the more interesting, and famous Inuit that we met and became good friends with was Qaavigarssuaq Kristiansen (Miteq) and his wife Bebiane. The first picture is taken in Dundas at their daughter, Emilie and son-in-law Arrutak Kristiansens home. The second picture is of Qaaviagarssuaq outside their home(1968) and the third photo is from a book showing Qaavigarssuaq as a young man (on the left) at the completion of the 5th Thule Expedition (1924) together with the expedition leader, Knud Rasumssen, and Arnarlunguaq. These three had just completed a 4 year expedition travelling by dog sled through the Canadian arctic and Alaska visiting and recording meetings with all the Inuit tribes. Following this expedition they sailed from Alaska to Seattle, travelled by train to N.Y. and Washington D.C., and visited with the president Calvin Coolidge before returning to Denmark and then Thule. It was always exciting to hear Qaavigarssuaq tell about his life adventures,much better than just reading a history book!! All photos were taken by Ron Milnarik