Makkovik, Newfoundland and Labrador

Infobox Settlement
official_name = Makkovik
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settlement_type = Town
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pushpin_label_position = left
pushpin_map_caption = Location of Makkovik in Newfoundland
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subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = CAN
subdivision_type1 = Province
subdivision_name1 = NL
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established_title = Inuit community
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population_as_of = 2001
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population_total = 384
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timezone = Atlantic Time
utc_offset = -4:00
timezone_DST = Atlantic Daylight
utc_offset_DST = -3:00
latd = 55
latm = 05
lats =
latNS = N
longd = 59
longm = 11
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longEW = W
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area_code = 709
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footnotes = Makkovik is a community in Labrador in northern Canada. It had a population of 384 persons in 2001. The main industry is fishing (snow crab) and there is a fishing cooperative.

The population is mainly composed of residents of mixed Norwegian and Inuit heritage. Settled by Torsten Kverna Andersen and his wife Mary Ann Thomas who set up a trading post there in 1860, the population gradually increased over the next three decades as European settlers and Inuit established roots in the community, though this territory since time immemorial was used by Inuit. Colonization was assured in 1896 when the Moravian Church established a mission station and residential school there. Both the mission and school were destroyed by a fire in 1948 but the economy was instilled in the 1950's by two notable events. First was the forceful resettlement to Makkovik of 150 Inuit residents of the northern communities of Nutak and [Hebron, Newfoundland and Labrador|Hebron, Nunatsiavut] . Second was the establishment nearby of a radar warning station by the United States government.

Geography

The community lies at the end of a peninsula in northern Labrador about 215 kilometres northeast of Happy Valley-Goose Bay. Travel is by air year round and by boat in summer. Winter travel is by snowmobile. The community is situated on a sheltered bay in a sadlle between two hills. In the lee of the northernmost hill is a large copse of tall spruce trees, which is remarkable given the paucity of tree cover for miles around. Now known as the Moravian Wood, there is a small cemetery in the centre.

The other Makkovik

For three years in the late 1950's the United States Air Force encroached in a remote radar base about 15 kilometres north of the settlement. Called Cape Makkovik, it was constructed between 1955 and 1957 and operated until 1961 and was dismantled later in the decade. It was a so-called "gap-filler" in the Pinetree Line set up to monitor the skies for foreign invaders from the north.

External links

* [http://www.ourlabrador.ca/member.php?id=5 Town of Makkovik]
* [http://www.pinetreeline.org/gap/gfcm.html Pinetree Line]