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Although you'll find an old way of life and sublime Arctic scenery in the region, don't expect much in the way of prettiness in the villages: communities are often poor, roads pitted, houses strung out and battered, and the streets festooned with telephone and electric cables. The region currently has just one paved road - from the airport at KANGIQTINQ (pop.2189) to the settlement's "downtown". And remember that villages often aren't communities at all in the accepted sense: Rankin Inlet, for example, was only founded in 1955 when the North Rankin Nickel Mine opened. Three years later the government, shocked at conditions of local Inuit, "moved" people here from their nomadic homes in the wilderness: the resulting settlement, Itivia (now all but vanished), a kilometre from Rankin, was a disaster, that was made worse by the closure of the nickel mine in 1962. Only a craft-producing initiative and recent tourism saved the day. Things to see and do include trails, fishing and bird-watching in the Ijiraliq (Meliadine) river valley 5km from the settlement, and a Thule site with stone tent rings, meat caches, kayak racks and underground winter houses. First Air has direct flights to Rankin Inlet from Iqaluit via Coral Harbour and connecting services from Ottawa and Montreal via Iqualuit on Baffin Island. Calm Air flies scheduled services from Churchill in Manitoba to Rankin Inlet and most other Keewatin villages. Outfitters and small charter firms here and in all the communities are available to fly or guide you into the interior or out into Hudson Bay for fishing and naturalist trips. Rankin Inlet boasts the small regional Kivalliq Regional Visitor Centre , housed - along with the post office - at the Siniktarvik Hotel (tel 645-5091). As in much of the far north, prices in hotels tend to be per person whether you're in a double or single: thus for two people sharing remember you need to double our given rate. Rankin Inlet has two accommodation possibilities: the Siniktarvik Hotel (tel 645-2807 or 645-2949, fax 645-2999; $125-175 per person) and Ferguson Lake Lodge (tel 867/645-2414, fax 645-2197; $125-175 per person).
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