This is most likely the northernmost society in the world. Today most of the inhabitants are scientists, but between the two world wars and after 1945 Ny Ålesund was a mining society.
Ny Ålesund proximity to the pole, have made it the point of departure for several North Pole expeditions. In 1926 the airship Norge with captain Roald Amundsen and captain Umberto Nobile flew over the Noth Pole to Alaska, departing from Ny Ålesund.In 1928 Umberto Nobile, disapointed by the fact that the Norwegians had gotten all the credit for the previous flight over the pole, came back with an all-Italian expedition to repeat the task. The airship crashed in the ice to the north of Spitsbergen.Seven of the sixteen crew members were rescued after a major search and rescue operation. Roald Amundsen was taking part in the operation with his seaplane plane Latham. On his way from Tromsø to New Ålesund the plane disapeared in the Atlantic ocean.
The English whaler Jonas Poole found the first coal in the Kongsfjord, where Ny Ålesund is situated in 1610. Not until the interwar period were the coal again a comodity in demand. Norwegian fishermen and other investors in need for coal started the Kings Bay Kull Company in Ålesund hence the name, in 1916 and started mining the deposits at Ny Ålesund.Coal industry in here was not lucurative business. In 1929 the mining stopped. The Norwegian state took over the company, and continued until the settlement was evacuated during the second world war. After the war the state owned company restarted the operation. A series of accidents in the next years the mining closed down for good in 1962.The last accident had consequences for the political life in Norway and the government had to resign after a report pointed out negligence on their part.
The settlement of Ny Ålesund are now inhabited by scientists. They come from all over the globe with a Chinese research base who have the longest comuting. Along with these there are people from up to 15 other nations here. The settlement can house 150 residents. The distance to the North Pole is half of the distance to Oslo from Ny Ålesund.
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