July 1- A Cold Day in Longyearbyen

We awoke as we were docking at the small city of Longyearbyen. This town has 1,500 people and is also on the islands of Svalbard. This is a town primarily known for its coal mining operations. Coal was discovered here in 1906 by an American, J.M. Longyear. There is also drilling for oil going on in the area. 

Longyearbyen is located 78 degrees north and 16 degrees east. People must be able to work in order to live here so all folks we saw were hale and hardy. For many years this town was isolated the whole winter. All transport was by ship and the fjord was frozen from October - May. No food was brought in; neither was mail or newspapers. Mail was brought in by air the first time in 1958.

Permafrost covers all of this area, which means only the top yard of earth thaws in the summer. So all utilities-including water- are above ground. Makes for interesting landscape. 

The head of all activity in Longyearbyen is the Sysselmann. He is the main representative of the Norwegian government and serves as both the Police Chief and the Judge for the community. Now that doesn't see fair and balanced to us.

 No child is normally born here and no one is buried here. Not much of a community in my book.

No roads connect the communities on the Svalbard Islands. Transportation between towns is by snowmobile. We did see some cars on the one dirt road from the port into the "town."

The temperature was 37 degrees and the wind was 22 miles per hour. VERY, VERY COLD!