Herschel Island Park, Yukon

The diverse, cross-country beauty of the nation is depicted on 12 provincial and territorial parks stamps to be issued for Canada Day 1993. The Yukon's first territorial park is situated off the northern coast in the Beaufort Sea on the 100-square kilometre Herschel Island. The island was used by American whalers as a wintering station from 1890. Inuit, missionaries and the police came, but when the RCMP post was abandoned in 1964, the last non-native left. In July 1987, the park was created through the settlement of Inuvialuit land claims. No permanent population exists, but the native families from the Mackenzie use it as a fishing and hunting base as did their ancestors. The Beaufort "Gyre" of clockwise circulation of the Beaufort Sea brings warm nutrient-rich fresh water to the island which supports the fish population and attracts seals, which in turn attracts polar bears and arctic foxes. Seventy-six species of birds can be found including the snowy owl, ptarmigan and North America's densest breeding population or rough-legged hawks. In addition to the arctic flora, mammals, birds and sea life, the island boasts archaeological treasures of the Thule culture (1000-1600 A.D.), people who had a sophisticated sea-hunting technology and permanent villages of houses made from stone, whalebones and turf. "Qikiqtaruk", as the Inuvialuit call Herschel Island, represents a combination of the natural and historic protected in this nature preserve. The stamp designs convey the feeling that the artist visited these spectacular locations and was awed by their beauty.