The Big Island and Pelee Island…

Johnny-on-the-Spot … by John Foster …

Years ago, my grandson Keaton had a school assignment to list the places he had lived.

His report included “a year in Tennessee”.

It was actually only a week during a family vacation, but we guess he liked it so much, it seemed like a year to hm.

I’ve lived year and a half of my life on 2 islands; the largest island in the world, Greenland ,and the remaining half-year, a week at a time, on Pelee Island, the largest Lake Erie island.

While Greenland covers more than 836,000 square miles, Pelee Island is about 16 square miles.

Eighty percent of Greenland is covered by ice, up to 1.9 miles thick. The weight of the ice has pushed portions of the island land mass one mile below sea level.

Greenland is actually a geographical part of North America.

Pelee Island, Canada’s southernmost port of entry, is slightly milder, due to effect of Lake Erie. The island has the longest frost-free season in the Province of Ontario and outside of British Columbia, it has one of the mildest winters.

Yet , they still get about 30 inches of snow annually and it can get pretty “frosty” December through February.

In the area of Greenland where I spent a year, in winter, it would snow just a bit less and of course, being north of the Arctic Circle, it was a lot colder when the average temperature is below zero December to February.

But in the summer months, you can get a sunburn when temps rise into the 50’s.

There are roughly 230 year-round residents on Pelee Island which figures out to a population density of 14.5 people per square mile.

In Greenland,there are 56,000 residents.

I think that figures out to a population density of .35 people per square mile.

Lots of elbow room but 80% is largely uninhabitable due to the ice cap.

Most Greenlanders live on the southern coasts.

About one-third of Pelee Island is covered by trees but farming produces 5,000 acres of soybeans, 1,000 acres of wheat and 500 acres of grapes to support the winery which started back up in the 1960’s.

They used to have a commercial fishery on the island and there are several abandoned rock quarries.

Greenland ‘s major industry is fishing.

While stationed in Greenland, I went on an excursion to a fishing village and saw slabs of caribou meat, spread over rocks to sun dry, just covered with black flies and a pile of antlers that was easily 15 feet tall.

Pelee Island hosts an annual pheasant hunt in the fall and the 20 or so students from the 3 room school house on the island sell raffle tickets to hunters to finance their annual field trip.

Eric the Red was exiled to Greenland and he called it “Greenland” to entice others to settle there.

According to scientists, the island was actually green 2.5 million years ago.

There were several attempts by Norsemen and North American migrants to settle Greenland but the 13th century Inuit people from Asia got a foothold and that bloodline remains today.

Eighty-eight percent of Greenlanders today are mixed Inuit/Danish.

Pelee Island has evidence of being occupied by indigenous peoples as far back as 10,000 years.

It is the traditional territory of the Three Fires Confederacy of First Nations (the Ojibwa, the Odawa and the Potawatomi nations).

In 1788, Thomas McKee leased the island from the native tribes and in 1823, William McCormick acquired Pelee Island. It’s a prominent name on the island still today.

My time in Greenland was serving at Sondrestromfjord Air Force Base which is now Kangerlussuaq and it’s just north of the Arctic Circle.

Some of the world’s purest air and water are found in Greenland.

There aren’t many trees, especially north of the Arctic Circle, where you might find some scrubby bushes but in the summer, you can see lots of pretty wildflowers.

I have a tupilak, an item carved from reindeer antlers or musk ox horns.

Pelee Island used to have the “Trading Post” on the island west side.

As a kid, I got to buy a new Matchbox vehicle every vacation. They were displayed in a wooden case with a glass front and it might have been the highlight of my trip to the island.

Greenland has the northern lights and they are beautiful. When I saw them, they looked like huge, velvet theatre curtains waving across the sky.

Pelee Island offers gorgeous sunsets.

I love sitting on Scudder dock on North Bay and watch the red sun slip into the Lake Erie waters.

I used to tell my daughters to watch for the wisp of steam as the sun slipped below the horizon.

It’s a Pelee thing.

Greenland and Pelee Island.

One mighty big, the other somewhat smaller but the memories of both fill my mind.

I’m glad I’ve been able to experience both.