Sachs Harbour, Canada NW

Sachs Harbour is a small community of some 130 residents on the southwestern side of Banks Island, Canada’s fifth-largest island. It is the only settlement on Banks Island and the northernmost community in the Northwest Territories. The name goes back to the 30-ton schooner Mary Sachs, one of three ships in Stefansson’s Canadian Arctic Expedition 1913-1916. Sachs Harbour is surrounded by the Banks Island Migratory Bird Sanctuary No 1. To the west dry mud cliffs can be found, while the tidal mud flats, river deltas, wetland meadows and barren grounds with Dryas are used by some 95% of the Western Arctic’s Lesser Snow Geese, apart from Ross’s Geese, Black Brants, an estimated 25,000 King Eiders, several thousands of Long-tailed Ducks, Tundra Swans and Sandhill Cranes as key species. Banks Island is also home to more than half of the world's muskoxen, found mainly on the northern side, and Sachs Harbour has been called the “Muskox Capital of Canada”. For the Inuvialuit Sachs Harbour’s indigenous name is Ikaahuk "Place to which you cross" or “Place where one crosses”. The community was started in 1929, when Inuit families from the Mackenzie River Delta came to settle hunting mainly white foxes.