Churchill, Manitoba

Sitting on the east bank of the Churchill River where it empties into Hudson Bay, CHURCHILL has the neglected appearance of many of the settlements of the far north, its unkempt open spaces dotted with the houses of its mixed Inuit, Cree and white population. These grim buildings are heavily fortified against the biting cold of winter and the insects of the summer: ample justification for a local T-shirt featuring a giant mosquito above the inscription "I gave blood in Churchill". That said, the town has long attracted a rough-edged assortment of people with a taste for the wilderness, and nowadays tourists flock here for the wildlife, particularly the polar bears – a lifeline, now that Churchill's grain-handling facilities are underused.