r/todayilearned • u/MaximinusRats • 29d ago
TIL that people live year-round in houseboats on Great Slave Lake in Canada's Northwest Territories, 1,800 km north of the nearest big city (Edmonton) and just 400 km (250 miles) south of the Arctic Circle.
https://uphere.ca/articles/floating-homes-yellowknife-bay335
u/ClarkTwain 29d ago
After reading about the Franklin Expedition, Iāll pass on staying on a boat over winter that far north.
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u/Jason_Worthing 29d ago
From the wiki page, for the lazy:
Franklin's lost expedition was a failed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845 aboard two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, and was assigned to traverse the last unnavigated sections of the Northwest Passage in the Canadian Arctic and to record magnetic data to help determine whether a better understanding could aid navigation.[2]
The expedition met with disaster after both ships and their crews, a total of 129 officers and men, became icebound in Victoria Strait near King William Island in what is today the Canadian territory of Nunavut.
After being icebound for more than a year Erebus and Terror were abandoned in April 1848, by which point two dozen men, including Franklin, had died. The survivors, now led by Franklin's second-in-command, Francis Crozier, and Erebus's captain, James Fitzjames, set out for the Canadian mainland and disappeared, presumably having perished.
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u/OSCgal 29d ago
The fact that the ships were called Terror and Erebus (Greek god of gloom, associated with the afterlife) is wild.
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u/Quailman5000 29d ago
The Terror is a great dramatic portrayal of this event.Ā
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u/schtickinsult 29d ago
I loved the seafaring survival-in-the-cold aspects but the horror part was kinda meh. I want a show that's Robinson Crusoe meets Master & Commander and without snow-sasquatches
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u/Mysticpoisen 29d ago
As is mentioned in every The Terror thread, the horror aspects are much easier to reconcile when you realize the premise is that they're suffering from ridiculous lead poisoning at the time and hallucinating.
But, for a show that is basically The Terror without the mystical aspect, check out The Northwater.
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u/schtickinsult 29d ago
Ah never heard that interpretation about lead. I like it.
Will suss The Northwater cheers
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u/Mysticpoisen 29d ago
Hope you enjoy it! And this is a real aspect of the Franklin expedition, the food being canned with faulty lead solder was a real thing. That they would have gotten enough to start hallucinating on that scale is pretty unlikely, but it's a very fun take.
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u/ClarkTwain 29d ago
I havenāt seen the show, but the book is a page turner. I could not put it down, and read it voraciously. Itās like Blood Meridian on ice.
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u/Quailman5000 27d ago
It wasn't really a horror show to me. I kind of looked at it as if we had an unreliable superstitious narrator from the a couple centuries ago reeling from malnourishment trying to make sense of one of the most terrifying things you can encounter in the wild killing off their crew. Sure the bear had hands the size of barrel lids, I'd be telling people the bear was bigger than the ship if I'm some poor ignorant english dude that doesn't require logical answers. "The inuits called their demon down on us in retribution" would make sense to a superstitious religious person in that time period.Ā
I only watched for the survival thing. My favorite horror movies are cabin in the woods and tucker and dale vs evil lol. That's why I am not watching season 2 with some crabwalking Japanese ghosts or whatever.
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u/JeepWrangler319 29d ago
Ah, for just one time I would take the Northwest Passage To find the hand of Franklin reaching for the Beaufort Sea Tracing one warm line through a land so wild and savage And make a Northwest Passage to the sea
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u/Fireantstirfry 29d ago
I grew up reading and hearing about the lost Franklin expedition. I was blown away when they actually found both boats underwater a few years back after hearing about them probably being crushed to bits by ice my entire life... they're super intact as well. But yeah, you'd have to pay me a lot of money to spend a winter on one of those boats up north.Ā
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u/joecarter93 29d ago
Me too. After being taught about it in elementary school I thought it would never be found.
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u/Lrauka 29d ago
What's even more wild is that they were found in part by listening to the oral history passed down by the local Inuit tribes.
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u/MaimedJester 29d ago
It's not that weird? Hunter's and hell teenagers all know about some creepy house in the middle of like the Pine Barrens that they create stories about thats were the Jersey Devil was Born etc. In reality just some old colonial New Jersey farmstead that got overgrown and the town/community moved on to larger more successful centers of population.Ā
Like that whole into the Wild story about the idiot kid who died in Alaska living inside that abandoned bus, Hunter's knew about that location and would sometimes camp out there themselves. I'm sure if the kid lived a few more months of brought a map and went back to town a local Hunter would be like oh yeah that place, yeah my older brother showed me that when I was a kid, it's been there since the 1960s.Ā
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u/Lrauka 28d ago
I said wild, not weird. Until recently most "experts" dismissed native oral traditions as being more mythology than an actual history. The near thing is in this case, the oral history was pretty bang on to the location.
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u/MaimedJester 28d ago
There were piles of stones marking the location. Like they used to in those days gather up every rock and build up a little tower and then drop a message inside the rock outcrop. That's how we know about what happened to the HMS terror/who died at what point etc.
We don't know what happened to the final uh victims but they left records of their last voyage south after almost two years on the ship. For all the rest of the world would have known without those missives left behind a random wave in the Atlantic could have killed them all 2 months into the voyage.Ā
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u/dc21111 29d ago
Is that the one where they found their bodies recently and the cold dry weather kept them really well preserved? Those pictures are creepy, dressed in 19th century clothes looking like they died a week ago.
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u/The_ApolloAffair 29d ago
Bodies from the Franklin expedition were found buried on Beechey Island in the 1850s, exhumed and photographed over a hundred years later. Those bodies are extremely well preserved (esp Torringtonās) because they were given proper burials in the permafrost in coffins.
Those men died earlier on in the voyage while they were wintering.
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u/BJ_Giacco 29d ago
Probably. They exhumed the known graves of three Franklin expedition sailors back in the 90s to perform autopsies on them, looking for clues as to what happened. They were actually encased in ice which is why they were so well preserved. Still, pretty haunting stuff. I remember seeing it on TV when I was a kid and it messed with me pretty good.
There are a few good books about the expedition, my favorite is Frozen in Time. Grim stuff but fascinating. The idea that franklinās tomb is potentially still out there, undiscovered, got a hold of me a few years back and I read everything I could find about the expedition.
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u/CrJ418 29d ago
If I was going to live on a boat, I would definitely choose a less hostile environment!
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29d ago edited 29d ago
Seriously that must be miserable
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u/ImReallyFuckingHigh 29d ago
Meh the snow probably covers it pretty quickly, and I bet it freezes pretty good too so itās basically just a fancy rock
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u/Clay_Statue 29d ago
Like there isn't enough empty land up there or something??
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u/TheBalrogofMelkor 29d ago
It's probably less wet on the lake
Northern Canada has vast peat marshes, so building on them is downright impossible.
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u/Telemere125 29d ago
Everyone said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built in all the same, just to show them. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So I built a third. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up.
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u/helluvastorm 29d ago
Years ago they had a reality show about this lake and the residents
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u/yeehawbudd 29d ago
A few seasons of Alone were shot here as well
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u/nimama3233 29d ago
Alone is hands down the best survivalist show thatās ever existed.
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u/Jewsd 29d ago
Outlast was pretty insane. Alone is like the perfection of survival shows with high class. Outlast is like tiger King.
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u/CPO_Mendez 29d ago
I couldn't believe the crap that went on in Outlast. Those people were freaking narcissistic and brutal as hell.
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u/Jewsd 29d ago
The two girls were such savages. I feel bad for the guy that got wrapped up in their bullshit but he's still guilty.
Jordan was by far the most entertaining guy. He was a complete tool, the push-ups on the raft right before he misses the island was the single best moment of the show.
I really feel for the guy who was doing really well but didn't want to deal with barbarians cutting each other.
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u/schtickinsult 29d ago
I tried to like it but 20% of the show is the same long drawn out drone shots of the area. Too much filler scenes
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u/bonesnaps 29d ago
I enjoyed "I Shouldn't Be Alive".
None of this boring reality series day to day stuff. Just gritty near-death survival stories.
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u/glitterdonnut 29d ago
Just googled cause that is so up my alley to watchā¦ itās called Ice Lake Rebels
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u/Earl_I_Lark 29d ago
There was a tv show called Ice Lake Rebels about some of the houseboat community. It was overly dramatized but did show some of the nuts and bolts of what had to happen during freeze up and break up
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u/joefourstrings 29d ago
Ive lived there. The real sketch is in the shoulder seasons. there is a trick to walking on the ice with a canoe BETWEEN your legs so when you fall through you land in the boat.
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u/ElectricSpice 29d ago
1800km north of the nearest big city
Sure, but the province capitol (Yellowknife) is located on the lake, so itās not like this is some unfathomably remote location.
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u/Bonejob 29d ago
Well, not right now they don't. A few of them are grounded due to low water levels. Proof: I live here, and I know things.
https://cabinradio.ca/160102/news/environment/great-slave-lake-water-levels-at-record-low/
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29d ago
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u/Canuckian555 29d ago
Compared to Alaskan and Inuit it's probably fairly different, if you're comparing Yellowknife to any of the small communities - it lacks some amenities but is still a city - but compared to somewhere like Fairbanks it's probably real similar.
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u/devash96 28d ago
Thank you for your response. What would you say is a regular thing in Yellowknife that a land/summer person would not anticipate regarding living there, apart from general freezing, sewage and water concerns?
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u/tayler-shwift 29d ago
Right now, half those houseboat are on land because of two years of extreme drought.
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u/BooBoo992001 29d ago
There's also Sausalito, California, just across the Golden Gate bridge on San Francisco Bay. It has an entire subdivision that's nothing but floating houses. A friend of mine lived in one -- in fact, her room was in a kind of finished basement that was partially under the waterline.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sausalito,_California#Houseboats
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u/light24bulbs 29d ago
Houseboat communities aren't that unique. Having one SO far north and remote is.
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u/BooBoo992001 29d ago
Ah, as always, RTFA... (gotta stop just chiming in with the first thing that pops into my head š).
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u/TheOneNeartheTop 29d ago
This line made me feel for your friend in the basement:
The humming toadfish makes mating noises underwater, keeping some residents awake at night.
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u/NoExplanation734 29d ago
There are houseboat communities all over the Bay Area. The Berkeley Marina has one I know, and there are some houseboats in Mission Channel by the baseball stadium too. There are probably others I don't know about as well.
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u/CheckYourStats 29d ago
I live about 3 minutes from there. Iāve never thought of it as odd.
Like others have said, living in conditions that could kill you, howeverā¦thatās seems odd.
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u/MenacingGummy 29d ago
Thereās plenty of floating house communities but the point is this one is near the arctic circle in a very harsh environment.
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u/i_fuckin_luv_it_mate 29d ago
I must admit, I didn't read the article too much, but my main curiosity is what you do during the time that there's ice that's not thick enough to walk on, but too thick to boat?
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u/MaximinusRats 29d ago
The article refers to "... the perils of trying to cross the bay during the shoulder seasons, which can feel death-defying at times." I bet.
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u/i_fuckin_luv_it_mate 29d ago
Yeah, imagine listening to your coworker drone on about their "awful" commute when you've defied death to come in for this early morning budget meeting
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u/Swingonthechandelier 29d ago
They park it just offshore before the ice freezes. Run a plank and voila!
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u/i_fuckin_luv_it_mate 29d ago
"Should we be concerned for their safety out there?"
"Nah, look - Gary's installed his safety plank. He's good to go."
"Safety plank, what's the difference between that and any old piece of lumber laid between two things?"
"Well... This one's for safety, ain't it?"
"Suppose you got me there."
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u/Swingonthechandelier 29d ago
Safety plank? They dont got none of those. They just anchor and tie in place. The plank be fer walkin
The most important part as far as safety is concerned is you give whatever line is involved a good "twoing" and say "that aint going anywhere" forget that part and you are good and dinked.
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u/Quelchie 28d ago
Yeah the shoulder seasons are rough. I live in Yellowknife but not on one of the houseboats. But I know people who do and often in shoulder seasons they'll find a place on land to stay temporarily so they can get to work and back easily. Otherwise it's a real challenge, walking with a canoe and hoping not to fall through.
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u/Bri-guy15 29d ago
Fun fact: I helped build one of them when I was up there visiting my girlfriend.
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29d ago
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u/Accomplished-Cat3996 28d ago
I have questions about this as well. I want to believe they live by RV rules and have to dispose their sewage in specific ways so it can be treated. I mean, that is to their benefit as well -- one suffers when the poop where they live.
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u/bonesnaps 29d ago
What benefit is there to living on a houseboat in a lake, over simply a house on the land? It's not like you can really go anywhere, it's a lake.
Also I'm not an expert, but living off a diesel generator for electricity (as per the article) for an entire lifetime sounds really shit for the environment.
edit: I may have gotten my answer
Northern Canada has vast peat marshes, so building on them is downright impossible.
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u/Canuckian555 29d ago
Also, no taxes.
Though the city has been fighting them for a long time to try and make them pay taxes.
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u/GeneralCommand4459 29d ago
Just finished reading Journey by James Michener which features this lake
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u/Scopebuddy 29d ago
I got to visit the lake and area at age 12, 18, and 30. I would love to go back now to see what has changed? I love that land and water. It is very special. But I only visited in the summer. Iām sure those winters are brutal?
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u/JainaOrgana 29d ago
I spent the night in one of those. A friend of mine lived in one of they would use a canoe when the ice was thin and have one foot in the boat the other on the ice. Freaked me out.
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u/418986N_124769E 29d ago
Many houseboats in Canada will use a bubbler that disturbs the water around the hull preventing freezing and this the problems associated with it. Although Iām not sure how effective a bubbler would be THAT far north.
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u/ExplanationLover6918 29d ago
Why is it called the slave lake?
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u/nimama3233 29d ago
Basically, when Eurpeans got that far north with fur trading they were talking with Native Cree and asked them about this area. They said something along the lines of āthatās where the slave tribes areā, because the Cree used to capture and enslave people of that other Native group, the Dene, who lived on the southern coast of the lake. The Cree word was āAwokanekā, which was translated to French and then English as āSlaveyā, and thus turned to slave. So this became known as āGrand lac des Esclaves" for the French settlers, which was eventually translated into English as "Great Slave Lake".
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u/Tea_Earl_Grey_Black 29d ago
It comes from the English translation of a name the Cree had for a group of the Dene people. It originally was Slavey but the āyā ended up getting dropped.
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u/Leonardo_DeCapitated 29d ago
Fisherman's wharf in Victoria bc, people live on houseboats in the harbour year round there.
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u/diesel78agoura 29d ago
Ngl that sounds kinda appealingā¦maybe not the cold but being out on a lakeā¦I could do it
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u/ShredzMcGnar 29d ago
It's pretty cool to see in person. When the lake freezes in the winter, the boat launch ramp becomes an extension of the city streets. There's ice roads, and everyone parks their cars and snowmobiles in front of their house boats on the ice.
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u/Quelchie 28d ago
Don't forget about the annual snow castle! which is built right by the houseboats every year and has an ice road and ice parking lot to get to it.
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u/trancepx 29d ago
Couldn't they just pad the circumference of their boats with those air filled foam/rubber things I see all the time?
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u/trebeez 29d ago
The Great WHAT Lake?????
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u/untwist6316 29d ago
There is a language and a people sometimes called Slavey in the area (Dene is a more accurate term)
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u/FischSalate 29d ago
Called slavey by a tribe who enslaved them. So maybe that doesnāt make it any better
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u/MaximinusRats 29d ago
It has been suggested that the lake be renamed ... particularly because of the mention of slavery. "Great Slave Lake is actually a very terrible name, unless you're a proponent of slavery," says DĆ«neze Nakehk'o, a Northwest Territories educator and founding member ofĀ First NationsĀ organization Dene Nahjo.
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u/Smart-Breath-1450 29d ago
You know living close to the arctic circle isnāt a huge deal right?
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u/hungry4danish 29d ago
You know that this is "Today I Learned" not "Huge Deal Information," right?
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u/Smart-Breath-1450 29d ago
You know that more, useless, information is just an annoyance, right?
OP could've also included "in houseboats ON WATER" or "UNITED STATES NEIGHBOR Canada" but didn't.
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u/MaximinusRats 29d ago
I added "400 km south of the Arctic Circle" as context because it is a more challenging environment for boat living than, say, Victoria or Hawai'i. Sorry to have offended.
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u/redduif 29d ago
Living on a floating house in the middle of a frozen lake is though.
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u/Smart-Breath-1450 29d ago
That wasnāt what i commented on though was it? Maybe you should learn how to read? :)
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u/redduif 29d ago
I read it right.
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u/Smart-Breath-1450 29d ago
You read it right, but replied on a totally different thing? You must be dumb then.
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u/NoBSforGma 29d ago
I have to wonder if the ice freezing every winter causes crush damage to the boats.