Bellsund, Svalbard
Sometimes it doesn't matter how far you travel from the beaten path, you're still going to find that some wild schemer was there before you, trying to make his fortune. In the case of this remote shore in Bellsund, the scheme was gold mining and the fact that the area's geology has nothing about it to suggest the presence of gold did not seem like a good enough reason to prevent the establishment of a mine in the very early 1900’s. The building pictured dates from that time, when Svalbard was truly a "no man's land" and there was no real authority in the islands. Eventually, the complete absence of gold resulted in the sensible decision to quit looking for gold. Decades later, the buildings were renovated by members of the Polish scientific community, who still use the hut as a base for some of their research in the area. The building was boarded up when we visited, and you can see the wooden window covers and the heavy wooden bars across the door. These are precautions taken to keep prowling polar bears from redecorating the hut's interior.
Sometimes it doesn't matter how far you travel from the beaten path, you're still going to find that some wild schemer was there before you, trying to make his fortune. In the case of this remote shore in Bellsund, the scheme was gold mining and the fact that the area's geology has nothing about it to suggest the presence of gold did not seem like a good enough reason to prevent the establishment of a mine in the very early 1900’s. The building pictured dates from that time, when Svalbard was truly a "no man's land" and there was no real authority in the islands. Eventually, the complete absence of gold resulted in the sensible decision to quit looking for gold. Decades later, the buildings were renovated by members of the Polish scientific community, who still use the hut as a base for some of their research in the area. The building was boarded up when we visited, and you can see the wooden window covers and the heavy wooden bars across the door. These are precautions taken to keep prowling polar bears from redecorating the hut's interior.
