Spitsbergen's history is closely related to mining. In the
17th century, John Munro Longyear, American of Marquette, Michigan
took the lead in developing massive coal fields of the Svalbard Archipelago.
Coal deposits were discovered in Longyearbyen and mining began in
1905. Longyear sold out in 1916 to the Norwegian company SNSK - Store
Norske Spitsbergen kullkompani.
The King's Bay area (fjord Kongsfjorden) is a tourist destination
of Arctic and Svalbard polar cruises. Ny-Ålesund is one of the
world’s northernmost human settlements and a modern research
centre accessed by several flights a week.
Ny-Ålesund was the starting point of expeditions of Nobile and
Amundsen to reach the North Pole.
On May 12, 1926 with a crew of 16 led by Roald Amundsen, the Airship
Norge became the first to reach the North Pole.The airship
left Ny-Ålesund for the flight to the North Pole on May 11.
Click
on the arrows on the map
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