The Far North, Where Is It Actually?

Spanning the distance from the 60th parallel (60° north latitude) to the North Pole, Canada's Far North sprawls across some 1.5 million sq. mi. (3.9 million sq. km.). Its three constituent territories -the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut- account for more than 40 percent of Canada's total land area. Yet the combined population of the region is around 100,000 -no more than that of a small city.

Clearly, it takes a special kind of person to want to live in Canada's sparsely populated Far North. The long, dark winters provide some of the harshest weather known on Earth. The attractions here remain largely natural ones -from the magical aurora borealis of winter to summer's unsettling "midnight sun."

Canada's territories also boast the country's highest mountain ranges and its longest and most powerful rivers. The vast expanses of lakes are so numerous that they may never all be named.

Far from being a place of banishment, Canada's northern territories inspire great passion in most who visit or live there. No doubt this attachment runs deepest among the native people, who make up more than half of the total population.

In 1999, the Canadian government acknowledged their special tie to the land by carving out the new, native-governed territory. Its name, "Nunavut," was taken from the Inuit words for "our land."