June 15–Igloo Church, Inuvik, Northwest Territories

No rain this morning, but it is cold!  Upper 30s – brrr!  Just below my camper door, that gray on the bumper was a river of mud when we arrived on Friday.

These are our sites at the Happy Valley RV Park.  We sort of made our own arrangement because I never could figure out how the sites were actually laid out!  Would only want someone I know parked that close to my back door!

I bought fuel – over $7 a gallon for diesel.  Things are very expensive here.  There is a store here similar to WalMart with a Pizza Hut/KFC counter.  Our medium pizza, which we often get a large in the States for $10, was over $20 here.  We were hungry and it was good!

This was kind of ‘the big day’ since the Igloo Church is the main reason I made the trip up the Dempster Highway again.  Very impressive.  We attended Mass and then were given some history and a bit of a tour afterward.  There is actually an inner dome and an exterior dome.  Until this year you could go up in the dome but no more.

We arrived early and went in with our cameras.  After a few minutes, we both went out to our campers for more layers of clothes as there was no heat in the Church!  I believe they had turned it off for the season not expecting this cold weather. 

A bit of the story.  The Priest had the idea to build the church which was then designed and built by a Catholic Brother with a 5th grade education.  Sorry these are hard to read. :)  The church was built in two years by volunteers and completed in 1960.

 

 

 

 The Tabernacle and the Baptismal Font cover resembled igloos.

 

Note the painting in the background – one of the Stations of the Cross.
The wood for the pews was soaked in a steam box and shaped as needed.  The seats of the pews were wood strips as were the kneelers.

Curved pews.  Note the paintings on the wall – more Stations of the Cross.

I was surprised to see the hammered metal work when the altar cloth was raised!

 

Meet Mona Thrasher – an amazing artist who at the age of 18 with no training painted the Stations of the Cross plus scenes over the entryways.  She did the paintings within three months!  She passed away last year.  

 

 

 

 

On our way out of town, we stopped at the Visitor Center for these photos.

 

 

 

Tonight we have returned to the spot above the Rengling River where we stayed Thursday night.  What a different drive today as the weather was clear and the road was not slick.  I could drive on the dry part until I met another vehicle or pulled over for someone to pass me – then I was back in gooey mud.  Most everyone slows down when they meet you, but we had a couple of pickup trucks that flung mud clear up on the windshield they were traveling so fast.