Engigstciak: Mountain on the Tundra

​After we had set up camp on the tundra, we walked to Engigstciak, and climbed this low mountain just as Indigenous hunters have done for over ten thousand years. From its top, there is a commanding view of the surrounding tundra, and the ancient hunters used it to spot game. Shown above is the view from the top of Engigstciak, with some of our party walking on the tundra, and beyond them the Firth River
Although we also had a fine view of the tundra and the Firth River below, to the northeast on the Arctic coast, we saw something that the ancient hunters would never have seen.  I could scarcely believe my eyes! On the Arctic coast, its image blurred by mist and distance, stood a black and orange drilling ship, the Single Steel Drilling Caisson (SSDC). It is shown in the photograph below. It began life as a Japanese built very large oil tanker in 1972, was bought by Dome Petroleum in the early 1980s, and with the addition of thousands of tons of steel and concrete, converted into a drilling barge for the Arctic.
By 1983, the SSDC was drilling an exploratory well in the Canadian Arctic not far from the Mackenzie delta. In 2005 it drilled a final gas well for Devon Canada off the northern Yukon coast. The well did not strike the multi-trillion cubic-foot reservoir that Devon was looking for, and the additional three gas wells that had been planned were cancelled. Since 2006, the drilling ship has been “cold stacked” in the Canadian Arctic.
I understand it will no longer be seen from the top of Engigstciak next year. It is slated to be brought around the coast of Alaska to be scrapped. Unfortunately, that will not be the end of it. A large amount of high-density polyurethane foam has broken free from the ship, no doubt due to the howling Arctic winds, and has littered the Arctic coast for many miles. We encountered fragments of this foam during our time on Nunaluk Spit. Although the era of oil and gas exploration in the Canadian Arctic appears to be over, it has left a legacy of litter.
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The drilling ship aside, Engigstciak was an intriguing place. The ancient hunters butchered animals at its base, including a now extinct steppe bison. Some of these bones are over ten thousand years old. Many stone age tools have also been found.
It might seem surprising that there was so much human activity in this area, but Engigstciak stood in Beringia, a vast area that was never glaciated because of its dry climate. Even though this area was cut off from the south by vast ice sheets, Beringia included eastern Siberia and the land bridge across Bering Strait. Humans were active here even though the rest of Canada was covered by a kilometre or more of ice.
The Arctic is full of surprises.