When the colonists arrived at the new spot in 1925, they were split between the town and 3 other places, which seemed to be good for hunting. The idea was to establish a good foundation for hunting as soon as possible, so the 70 colonists were divided between Scoresbysund / Ittoqqortoormiit, Kap Stewart / Tsiarngagai, Kap Tobin / Uunartoq and Kap Hope / Ittajimmiit. During the World War II, a few families also moved to Sydkap / Karngerstua, which even had a trading station, besides a few houses.
Kap Stewart / Tsiarngagai
Established in 1926. A few houses were built here, and today 2 of the houses still remain. Kap Stewart was deserted soon after that, but during World Way II, it was permanently occupied . Since then, Kap Stewart has often been used as a seasonal trapping station, along with Sydkap, Stewart Island, Fame Islands and others. Even today Kap Stewart is used by hunters, for overnighting and hunting. Lots of fossils can be found at the beaches near Kap Stewart .
Kap Hope / Ittajimmiit
Established in 1926. A few families moved out to this spot, which quickly turned out to be excellent for hunting. The first houses were “peat-houses”, built up with wood, and insulated outside with peat. These houses had just a single window, and a door leading out to a separately built porch. The houses were 16-20 square meters and most of them had only one big room. Some also had a little porch outside, which was used for toilet, seal-keeping and general storage. The main room had a big mattress, on which most of the family could sleep. The house had no running water or electricity, and a coal stove was used for cooking and for heating the house. Often a family had 5-6 children – one family in Kap Hope had more than 20 children. Until the 1960s, Kap Hope was inhabited by at least 15 hunter families, but from the middle of the 60s the village was slowly deserted. A lot of the adult inhabitants of Ittoqqortoormiit today, grew up in either Kap Hope or Kap Tobin. As a hunting society, Kap Hope was bigger than both Ittoqqortoormiit and Kap Tobin. A combined church and school was built, along with a little store, and Kap Hope also has its own graveyard. Today Kap Hope only consists of 10 people, but a lot of houses remain. There’s still a small school and a store, and the possibilities for good hunting are still excellent. None of the peat houses exist today, but in the local museum in Ittoqqortoormiit, you can see the remains of “Elionora’s house”, which came from here. Several Eskimo ruins can be visited in Kap Hope.
Kap Tobin / Uunartoq
Established in 1926. A few hunter families also moved out here , to live in pre-built peat houses . Until the end of the 1970’s Peter Brønlund and family still occupied a single peat house and managed living without running water, electricity or central heating. In that house, Peter and his wife raised about 7 children. When the combined Weather & Radio Station was established in 1947, the number of hunter families slowly decreased, but a few families remained, and one hunter family was still living in the village in 2004. Along with the Weather Station, a lot of employees and their families arrived. The station employed about 20 people, and each one brought their wife and family of about 3-4 children. When it was biggest, Kap Tobin was inhabited by about 120 people. There has never been a church, a store or a doctor in Kap Tobin, because it is situated only 7 kilometers from town. But, because of the great number of children a school was established, and a teacher was employed until the last family moved out in 2004. A medicine box was rotated around the employees from the station, and for this job the “doctor” for each month was paid a sum of about 60 DKK. The weather-station itself had electricity from the beginning and, by the 1980s, most of the houses in the village also had both electric light and power. This was before even Ittoqqortoormiit town was blessed with electricity and telephones.
Today nobody resides permanently in Kap Tobin, but most of the houses are owned by inhabitants from Ittoqqortoormiit, who use them as summer houses. In Kap Tobin you also find Eskimo ruins, and furthermore the warmest hot springs in Greenland (at 61.8 degrees).
