A ribbon of silver looping across a green valley, the Soper River, known as the Kuujuaq by the Inuit, runs from the barren, brown highlands of the Meta Incognita Peninsula to Pleasant Inlet on the south coast of Baffin Island.
The deep Soper Valley offers a rich microclimate that supports a profusion of flowers and a forest of willows. The abundance of plants, in turn, sustains a large number of caribou, fox, wolf and Arctic hare.
Most of the rivers on Baffin fluctuate from flood to trickle due to a
quick runoff caused by permafrost. The Soper, however, with a drainage basin
over 2,500 sq km, offers about 50 km of navigable waterway from July to September.
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The Soper River is located on the southernmost peninsula on
Baffin Island, called the Meta Incognita Peninsula, It runs north to south,
starting halfway between Iqaluit (on Frobisher Bay) and Lake Harbour (on the
south coast).
Access to the Soper River is through Iqaluit, the administrative and
transportation centre of the Baffin Region, by daily jet service from Ottawa and
Montreal. From Iqaluit you charter a bush plane, or helicopter, to the Soper
River, or take a scheduled flight to Lake Harbour. As of 1995, there are flights
three times a week (For more information see Planning Your Trip.)
The names of places that appear in this text come from a number of sources. For centuries the Inuit have traveled the
Kuujuaq, 'great river', and given descriptive names to prominent features. In
1931, Dr. Dewey Soper surveyed the river valley and added many of the names found
on the Canadian Topo maps. In 1993, Bruce Downie wrote a guidebook on the
Itijjagiaq Trail and created names to facilitate interpretation of route
information, (The Itijjagiaq Trail starts on Frobisher Bay, crosses over the
highlands, and follows the east side of the Soper River to Lake Harbour.)
Descriptive names have also been added for river features.
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How to Get There
Archaeological research along the coastal region of Lake Harbour shows evidence
of the Dorset culture dating back 4,000 years. Between 800 and 1,000 years ago,
waves of people, called Thule, migrated from Alaska across the Arctic displacing
the earlier Dorset people. The Thule were hunters of bowhead whales and lived in
large, permanent villages. A climatic change between 1650 and 1850 called the
"little ice age" forced the whales south and the Thule to become more nomadic in
the search for food. This event transformed the Thule culture and marked the
beginning of the Inuit culture as we know it today.
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HISTORY OF THE SOPER RIVER
History of the Dorset, Thule and Inuit People
Although archaeological sites along the Soper River have not been analyzed, it is
surmised that early Arctic people use the Soper River valley, a natural inland
corridor, to hunt caribou for food, clothing and shelter. For centuries the Inuit from Lake Harbour traveled up the Soper Valley and north to rendezvous with Inuit families from Pangnirtung, Cape Dorset and Frobisher Bay at Amadjuak Lake, the caribou calving grounds. In the winter Inuit traditionally traveled by dog sled up the valley and over the peninsula to visit family groups on Frobisher Bay.
When the whaling industry started to decline in the early 1900s, Europeans turned
to fur trading and mineral exploration. Mica was mined in the Lake Harbour area
between 1900 to 1913. In 1911, the Hudson Bay Company established its first post
on Baffin Island at Lake Harbour. Demand for Arctic fox established the Soper
Valley, with its lush vegetation, as an important trapping ground.
In 1931, Dewey Soper, a biologist with Federal Department of the Interior, undertook exploratory surveys around Lake Harbour that included the Soper River. The river now bears his name.
Today, Inuit still use the Soper River, which they call the Kuujuaq,
much as they did in the past. Although motorized canoes and snowmachines now zip
them up the valley to hunt year-round, pick berries in the fall and travel
overland to Iqaluit in the winter.
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Inuit Use of the Soper River Valley
In 1992, the Soper River was officially designated a
Canadian Heritage River by the Canadian Heritage River Systems. This program is
directed by the park administrations of the federal, provincial and territorial
governments. The Soper River was chosen for its outstanding historical value,
natural beauty and recreational opportunities. Heritage Rivers are carefully
managed to maintain their natural value, and to enhance their recreational use
and enjoyment.
The area designated to the Canadian Heritage River System contains
the entire 2,500 sq km drainage basin of the Soper River and its two major
tributaries: the Livingstone and the Joy Rivers.
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On Becoming a Heritage River
To further protect and simultaneously encourage
the recreational use of the Soper River valley, the Katannilik Territorial Park
Reserve was established in 1994. The park takes its name from the Inuit word
Katannilik which means "the place where there are falls" (referring to the many
waterfalls that cascade down the valley walls). The park includes over 1,500 sq.
km. encompassing a large portion of the Soper River drainage and a corridor along
the Itijjagiaq Trail. (Itijjagiaq means "over the land" in Inuktitut.) This trail
follows a traditional route used to cross the Meta Incognita Peninsula between
Hudson Strait and Frobisher Bay.
Minimal facilities have been provided to help maintain the park's wilderness
character. Between Frobisher Bay and Lake Harbour, seven small emergency huts
were built plus a group/warden shelter and a picnic area at the Soper Falls. (For
further information on the park see Park Use and Regulations.)
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Development of Katannilik Park
The development of the Katannilik Territorial Park
Reserve and the designation of Soper River as a Canadian Heritage River has drawn
increasing numbers of visitors to the area. While the Inuit continue to travel
and hunt along the Soper River, adventurers from all corners of the world descend
the river by raft, canoe and kayak, hike the Itijjagiaq trail and hire Inuit
guides to take them up and down the river by motorized canoe.
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Use of the Soper River Today
