Arctic Sundial - Churchill MB
Posted by: 
PeterNoG
N 58° 46.072 W 094° 10.463
15V E 432077 N 6514799
This sundial is one of the exhibits in the Parks Canada Visitor Centre inside the Churchill Train Station in Churchill, Manitoba.
Waymark Code: WMA9JB
Location: Manitoba, Canada
Date Posted: 12/08/2010
Views: 2
~ This information is from a on-site sign ~ This unusual octagonal stone sundial was most likely created by astronomer William Wales during his stay at Prince of Wales Fort. Its technical details indicate that it was specifically made for use at the latitude of the fort. Wales (not the fort's namesake), along with fellow astronomer Joseph Dymond, spent over a year there in 1768*69 to observe the Transit of Venus. They also studied the climate, geology, ice conditions, flora and fauna of the region. The astronomers lived and worked out of a small 9' by 9' room within the fort. Their observatory was in the fort's south-east bastion where the sundial was found in 1958.
The sundial is carved from a sandstone that is not found at Churchill. Historians first thought that it may have been brought over by ship from England, either as a completed sundial or as ballast. However, we now know that the rock comes from an outcrop near the mouth of the North Knife River, fifty kilometres north-west of Churchill.