7/27/25: Intro to Greenland & Narsarsuaq's Signal Hill

An electric car was being charged outside the only hotel in Narsarsauk. In the previous post, I described that it had more of a hostel vibe than any we'd remembered for years. On the upholstered chair was written "Relax Your Ass" in giant letters! We weren't impressed that there was one single-bed-sized duvet and pillow for the double bed. 

The hotel lounge looked quite inviting unless you wanted to sit down and enjoy the view, that is. For over 24 hours, it looked like this, until I requested that the chairs be placed on the floor. I've never seen so many signs prohibiting people from lying down on the couches either!

We had hoped to tour the small, privately owned Narsarsauk Museum that told the story of the community from an Inuit, or Indigenous, hunting ground through Viking times to the establishment and eventual dismantling of the American base. It was, however, unfortunately closed each time we stopped by. 

Narsarsuaq is considered the gateway to the country's Viking history. The monument in Greenlandic granite depicted Eirík the Red on his horse, bending over to lift his son Leifur Eiríksson, also known as Leif the Lucky, up on the horse. His wife holds the horse by its head. 

On our way back to the hotel, we spotted the monument to Japanese explorer, Naomi Uemura (1941-84), which marked the spot where he began, in the summer of 1978, a solo journey by dog sled across the ice sheet from south to north, over 2,600 kms. Earlier that same year, Uemura became the first person to reach the North Pole solo, after driving a dog sled.

We passed some ugly apartment blocks as we began the 2.5-mile-long trail to Signal Hill above Narsarsauk.

These were our new fashion statements, thanks to the constant flies! We had brought mosquito nets because we had expected them around Mývatn Lake in north Iceland, but there had been very few there. Though they didn't bite, they still 'bugged' us!

Views of the community and the fjord as we began our hike up Signal Hill:

Please bear with me as I share some information about Greenland that we knew almost nothing about until researching it for this trip. 

Introduction: Greenland is unlike anywhere else in the world, an island of snow and ice where people have lived for thousands of years, and a culture of hunting and fishing along a coastline of deep fjords and steep mountains. The sheer size and majesty of the land are almost overwhelming, with the most enormous icebergs, the largest national park, the most extensive fjord system, the largest ice sheet, and the coldest temperatures in the northern hemisphere. 

Before 1941, Narsarquaq was just an area of land between a small glacier, a finger of the ice sheet, and the Tunulliarfik Fjord. In early July 1941, after Germany occupied Denmark that same year, an American convoy of eight ships, led by an icebreaker, brought in supplies and almost 500 military personnel and officers. Their goal was to build Bluie West One, an airbase, partly to protect 'their' supply of minerals, and partly to get supplies and flights into Europe. 

When it was completed, it served as a landing place for planes coming across the Atlantic to join the battle against Germany. It was easy to see evidence of that war activity 80 years later, with the airport runway and many of the buildings from that era. 

The country has marched into the modern age, with cell phones replacing landlines, the airline having more helicopters than planes, electric cars becoming the new norm, and WiFi and satellite TV available in hotel rooms. However, there are still no roads between towns, and a dog sled is more useful than a boat or a car. Some settlements still rely on just two or three supply ships a year, but only when the sea ice allows. 

Geography: Greenland, covering an area of 2.16 million acres, is the world’s largest non-continental island, with two-thirds of the area north of the Arctic Circle. Its southernmost point, Nunap Isua, is about the same latitude as Anchorage, Alaska, Oslo, Norway, and the UK’s Shetland Islands. Its northern tip, Cape Morris Jesup, is only 740km from the North Pole. The island is 2,670km long from north to south, and just over 1,000km wide at its widest point. I was surprised to learn that Canada’s Ellesmere Island is a measly 26km from northwest Greenland across Nares Strait, but there was no easy way to cross it because of the icebergs present all year. Iceland is about 300km from Greenland’s southeastern coast across the Denmark Strait, also called the Greenland Strait, depending on your perspective, of course.

After hearing rushing waters for at least the first thirty minutes of our hike, we enjoyed finally seeing the bubbling brook. 

With a population of only 56,609 as of 2023, Greenland has the world’s lowest population density, with nearly 40km² of land for every Greenlander. But it’s surprising to consider that there is only a narrow coastal strip to support all the coastal settlements. As there are no roads or railways between settlements, travel is by boat, plane, helicopter, snowmobile, or dog sled. 

Driving in Greenland is unlike anywhere else in Europe or North America, as the longest road only runs about 50km. There is no ferry to bring your car to Greenland or between its towns. The upside, as we were soon to find out for ourselves, was no traffic congestion!

There were no signs, unfortunately, of what the building we discovered near the top of the hill had been. I wonder if it might have been a cement factory years ago.

I found many of Greenland's geographical statistics astounding: 80% of the country is virtually flat and covered with an ice sheet that gradually slopes down to the sea; some of the rocks beneath the ice sheet are the oldest ever discovered on earth, dating back 3.8 billion years; and, in some places, the ice sheet is 3km thick, pushing the land in the middle of the island below sea level. It was a sobering thought that if the ice sheet ever melted completely, the world's oceans' water level would increase by 7m.

Government and Politics: Even though Denmark had no significant governmental contact with Greenland during the late 16th-century colonizing period, it claimed sovereignty over the island. The Danish government began having a more formal presence in Greenland by the mid-1800s. Though they held elections for local Greenlandic councils, all decisions were still made in Copenhagen. It's vital to note that there were likely only 15,000 Greenlanders at the time. 

Though Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, it has had a degree of self-government since 1979. That increased significantly when the Self-Government Act came into effect in 2008 and was extended in 2009. All Greenlanders have Danish citizenship, and its affairs are represented by Danish embassies and consulates. However, Greenland has its own independent representatives in Washington, DC, and at the EU in Brussels. 

More views of the village far below us and ...

... the path we'd just hiked!

Greenland’s Parliament, the Inatsisartut, has 31 members elected to serve for four years by proportional representation from the 41,000 registered voters. With seven political parties, some fail to receive enough votes to get representation in Parliament. There is also a separate election for the members who sit in the Danish Parliament. The country is divided into five municipal governments, down from the previous 60, which cover the entire island except for the world's largest Northeast Greenland National Park. Though the park covers over 40% of Greenland’s landmass, there is no permanent human population. The park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, covers 972,000km², more than twice the size of Germany or California.

At the summit was the meteorological weather station.

Greenland’s parliament established a commission in 2016 to come up with a draft constitution for an independent Greenland. When the resulting document was published in early 2023, it was considered evolutionary instead of revolutionary. Although many welcomed the draft constitution, there were detractors on both sides, with some arguing that it didn’t propel the country fast enough toward independence, and others claiming that it would create too much distance between Denmark and Greenland. I’ll write more about the quest for autonomy in upcoming posts, based on discussions I had with both Indigenous Greenlanders and Danes working in Greenland. 

The village’s population of just 139 worked primarily at the sole hotel or the airport, the only international one in south Greenland. Narsarsauk's only paved road led from the fjord harbor, past the hotel and airport, to the edge of the ice sheet. Notice the only runway ended within a few feet of the fjord!

The hike back down to the village through an alpine meadow filled with flowers was so much prettier than clambering on the rocks we had dealt with on the hike up the summit.

Economy: The Danish government created the Royal Greenland Trading Company (RGTC) in 1774 to run the country's trade and administration. When the Danish government took over the management of government affairs from the RGTC in 1908, it retained its trading monopoly until 1950. The RGTC, still a virtual monopoly in 1979, was split up into smaller organizations, the largest being KNI or Greenland Trade, which was wholly owned by the Greenland government. Due to the economic history and the necessity to subsidize many services, the government has become involved in the country's commercial life. 

Greenland's economy is heavily based on fishing, accounting for over 90% of the country's exports. That has made it highly susceptible to lowering fish and prawn stocks and price fluctuations. The economy is also particularly dependent on the subsidies received from the Danish government, which about equals the annual value of fish exports. The reliance on a single industry and the financial support from Denmark have made Greenland's desire for independence more challenging. The Greenlanders want improved schools, better health care, and better retirement options, but those hefty price tags are reliant on money from Denmark. Every infrastructure project must be underwritten by Denmark. 

Though tourism is expanding in Greenland, it will never be its economic answer. Mineral rights might be significant, as the country is believed to have substantial reserves of rare earths, which are crucial for many high-tech devices. But can they be economically exploited in the depths of the country's mountains without harming the environment, AND most of the benefits and control going overseas?

To provide some context for Trump's interest in purchasing Greenland, I learned that the strategic importance of Greenland during the Cold War led to the establishment of the American Thule air base in the northwest, which became a permanent presence. The other American World War II bases have also remained in place. I hadn't known that there was a history of the Americans' interest in acquiring the country. In 1946, the U.S. Secretary of State Robert Patterson offered US$100 million (more than $1.5 billion today) to buy Greenland. That offer was rebuffed by Denmark.

The Greenland Arboretum was first established in 1954, but planting continued until 1999. With 110 different species of trees and shrubs, it is likely the world’s most extensive arboretum of trees growing at the treeline. The 200-hectare site contained all the northern hemisphere trees and shrubs that grow in extreme conditions. The trees came from all over the world – Alaska, Siberia, Yukon, Nepal, Mongolia, and the Alps, plus native willow, birch, and rowan.

I hadn't known that ferns grew this far north before!

Before heading back to the hotel, we checked to see if the museum was open. Once again, it wasn't, but we wandered around its exterior for a few minutes. 

The building was the headquarters of Greenland Base Command at Bluie West One until operations ended in 1958. 

This Pratt & Whitney engine was used in a DC-3 plane. 

The spire outside the museum had topped the Bluie West One’s church during the American Era in Narsarsauk, which lasted from 1941 until 1958.

I thought it rather odd that another of the museum's exhibits was this hydrant, also from the American Era. When have YOU ever seen a hydrant at a museum before?!

Since most of the village of Narsarsauk was only a few minutes' walk from the airstrip, it was fun seeing Air Greenland and other small planes take off at pretty regular intervals.

Next post: Qassiaruk's UNESCO Ruins and on to Qaqortok!

Posted on September 21st, 2025, from San Francisco, where we have spent a lovely, but far too brief, weekend reconnecting with three of our young grandchildren. Thank goodness we'll see them again for American Thanksgiving in Chicago, when our four children, their spouses, and our five little ones will be together again, since we hosted everyone for the holiday in Denver two years ago. I hope that you are also lucky enough to be around loved ones as often as possible.