Kivitoo

67°56′N 64°52′W / 67.933°N 64.867°W / 67.933; -64.867^[1]CountryCanadaTerritoryNunavutRegionQikiqtaalukHighest elevation313 m (1,027 ft)Population • Total0Time zoneUTC-5 • Summer (DST)UTC-4 (EDT)

Kivitoo is an abandoned Inuit community and a former whaling station^[2] on the northeast shore of Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada. Kivitoo's Inuit families moved to Qikiqtarjuaq, approximately 50 km (31 mi) to the south, in 1963.^[3] Kivitoo Memorial Park remains at the southern shore of the hamlet.^{[4][failed verification]}

History

In the early 20th century, the Sabellum Trading Company established a post at Kivitoo to service the whalers who would anchor there to flense carcasses. The post was abandoned in 1926.^[5]

Kivitoo (qivittu) (FOX-D) is also a former Distant Early Warning Line and is currently a North Warning System site. Because of a nearby small coastal plain, a short airstrip was built during early operation of FOX-D.^[2]

The residents of Kivitoo were evacuated to Qikiqtarjuaq in the 1963, purportedly for their safety, after three residents of the community were killed in a collapse of the ice under their igloos.^[6] However, the town was never resettled afterward, as the remaining structures in the community had been demolished by authorities by the time residents tried to return.^[6]

The evacuation and destruction of Kivitoo is the subject of Zacharias Kunuk's 2018 documentary film Kivitoo: What They Thought of Us.^[6]

References

External links

• Photo, 2008 Archived 2013-03-12 at the Wayback Machine