There are no locks here. You leave the car keys in the ignition and building doors are closed with massive metal hatches. It’s like some weird industrial utopia…contradictory? Fundamentally, yes. But here in Thule it seems like a fitting description. All of Thule and the surrounding land (not covered by ice!) is open tundra. Thule Air Base lies in a valley. To the North and South, Thule is bound by ridges; to the west is North Star Bay and to the East are glaciers and the edge of the ice sheet. All piping is above ground and the buildings are raised since the ground is permafrost. Within minutes of walking you are in open tundra. Industrial, peaceful and safe, all at the same time. Very strange.
I’ve been going on evening runs to serve a dual purpose: learn the surrounding land and make myself tired enough to sleep in spite of the sunlight. I ran north from our flat top (aka building 353, they have flat roofs) and up North mountain. On my way out of town I saw three black Arctic foxes playing on pipes at the edge of town. They were small, cat like, and ridiculously cute. I continued up the road to the ridge of North Mt. and found myself at the top of massive basalt cliffs overlooking the bay, Dundas Village and Dundas mountain. For those of you in Seattle, these cliffs are somewhat like Vantage, WA; though not quite as columnar and incredibly chossy. The road I took faded out and I continued on, cross country, along the cliff’s rim. At this point I had traversed far from any roads and decided to take the direct, off-road route south, down North Mountain and back to Thule. In my off-road adventure I was more worried about tripping on thin black wires that crisscross the entire slope than unstable rocks and loose dirt! There is wiring, piping and remnants of human activity everywhere. At first glance the surrounding land seems raw and untainted. On foot, up close, the Thule Air Base “network”, both past and present, is clear. I imagined what would happen if I accidently kicked one of the wires… maybe a satellite would shut down, or some alarm system would go off. I have no idea how far I ran, with the open landscape I find it difficult to gauge distances.
Thus far I have yet to see a bit of tundra free of human impact. Trash, random building materials and sifted rock piles are everywhere. It doesn’t seem trashed per se… just thoroughly explored…
Dundas village, both old and new, are north of Thule. “New” Dundas village seems like a misnomer. The buildings have bold green, yellow and red exteriors but are mostly abandoned. Their windows are broken out, the rooms are gutted, the doors are left open and the paint is chipping. The spaces, however, must have been very homey and livable in their prime. Near the center of the town there are two sled dog corpses, their harness are attached and their tales are still fluffy and soft looking. Its eerie, as though this place was abandoned rapidly, or something tragic happened. According to some researchers who have been to other small towns, seeing animal corpses in a small Greenlandic village is not abnormal. Old Dundas village is a collection of remnants from a very old settlement. One hut, made of wood boards and insulated with peat, still stands. I have yet to learn the history of these villages and hope to make it to the small exhibit describing them.
Some interesting facts I have learned:
The landfill is located on the bay. Seepage from the landfill is draining into and contaminating North Star Bay. They are currently moving massive rocks and boulders to cover the landfill and construct a barrier between the landfill and bay.
There is an undetonated nuclear bomb in North Star Bay. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Thule_Air_Base_B-52_crash
The Top of the World (TOW) club, the only bar on the base, is currently closed because a guy bit someone … strange, maybe true, maybe a tall tale J
And for reference, Dundas Mt. is a mesa on a peninsula, North of Thule…Working on photos and maps!
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