Churchill, Manitoba, Canada is the place most people go to see polar bears.
Bears are not allowed in town and when one, usually a juvenile who hasn’t yet learned the rules, does wander into town, he is captured and sent to polar bear jail to wait for Hudson Bay to freeze over.
Just before the season arrives bear traps are set out on the perimeter of town, and then checked every few hours. When a bear ventures into a trap, he is tranquilized and moved to polar bear jail. When the water freezes, he is transported to the bay and released. Jail can accommodate 27 bears, including several mothers and cubs.
Polar bear jail, located north of town at the old airport, occupies a large Quonset hut left from a WW II SAC base. At that time the base had 450 buildings and 3000 personnel. Most of the buildings have been torn down.
The old fire house, now houses oil spill equipment. The 9250-foot runway is always kept cleared, so in an emergency the largest of jets could land there. For us frequent flyers it’s kind of nice to know that in the middle of nowhere there is a safe emergency landing area.
