Barracks at Cape Fullerton, Nunavut, Canada, 1904. Photo by J. D. Moodie. The original notes with this photograph added "Officers' Quarters only built at that time and occupied by Detachment, 1904."
Although Cape Fullerton was traditionally home to migrant Inuit, including the Aivilingmiut and the Kivallirmiut (Caribou Inuit), today the nearest permanently populated settlement is Chesterfield Inlet, roughly 100km (62mi) to the southwest.[4]
In the early 1900s, Fullerton Harbour was a popular wintering station for American and Scottish whaling ships and a trading point between Inuit and southern whalers. In September 1903, the first North-West Mounted Police outpost was established at Cape Fullerton both to establish Canadian sovereignty as well as to administer whaling licenses, collect customs, control liquor, and maintain order. The NWMP closed about 1914.[4]
Aivilingmiut woman Niviatsinaq ("Shoofly Comer"), wife of George Comer, at Cape Fullerton, circa 1903-1904
Comer spent two winters, 1910–1912, frozen in the ice at Cape Fullerton, during which time he made phonograph records of the local Inuit, and collected folklore and legends of the Iluilirmiut of Adelaide Peninsula (Iluilik), Hudson Bay. The vessel also took five small whales which yielded 910kg (2,000lb) of baleen, then valued at $10,000.[7]
In 1924, an old carpenter's shop and an outbuilding were dismantled from the remains of Cape Fullerton Outpost and the lumber shipped to Chesterfield Inlet.
In the winter of 1940–41, "the disused Police barracks at Fullerton Harbour" were still being used for refuge for travellers.[9]
↑ Ross, W. Gillies. "George Comer"(PDF). Arctic Profiles. ucalgary.ca. pp.294–295. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
Ukkusiksalik National Park is a national park in Nunavut, Canada. It covers 20,885 km2 (8,064 sq mi) of tundra and coastal mudflats south of the Arctic Circle and the hamlet of Naujaat, from Hudson Bay's Roes Welcome Sound towards the western Barrenlands and the source of Brown River. The park surrounds Wager Bay, a 100 km (62 mi)-long inlet on the Hudson Bay. Although the smallest of Nunavut's four national parks, it is the sixth largest in Canada. Its name relates to steatite found there: Ukkusiksalik means "where there is material for the stone pot".
Southampton Island is a large island at the entrance to Hudson Bay at Foxe Basin. One of the larger members of the Arctic Archipelago, Southampton Island is part of the Kivalliq Region in Nunavut, Canada. The area of the island is stated as 41,214 km2 (15,913 sq mi) by Statistics Canada. It is the 34th largest island in the world and Canada's ninth largest island. The only settlement on Southampton Island is Coral Harbour, called Salliq in Inuktitut.
King William Island is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, which is part of the Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between 12,516 km2 (4,832 sq mi) and 13,111 km2 (5,062 sq mi) making it the 61st-largest island in the world and Canada's 15th-largest island. Its population, as of the 2021 census, was 1,349, all of whom live in the island's only community, Gjoa Haven.
Coats Island lies at the northern end of Hudson Bay in the Kivalliq Region of Nunavut. At 5,498 km2 (2,123 sq mi) in size, it is the 107th largest island in the world, and Canada's 24th largest island.
Coral Harbour is a small Inuit community that is located on Southampton Island, Kivalliq Region, in the Canadian territory of Nunavut. Its name is derived from the fossilized coral that can be found around the waters of the community which is situated at the head of South Bay. The name of the settlement in Inuktitut is Salliq, sometimes used to refer to all of Southampton Island. The plural Salliit, means large flat island(s) in front of the mainland.
The A. T. Gifford was the last American schooner-rigged whaleship to cruise Hudson Bay. She caught fire and sank in late 1915. Although the captain and a few of his crew escaped the wreck, none survived the disaster.
Captain George Comer was considered the most famous American whaling captain of Hudson Bay, and the world's foremost authority on Hudson Bay Inuit in the early 20th century.
The Monjo Company was a New York City-based fur trading business that obtained furs in the Canadian arctic, Alaska, and the Northwest United States, and sold them wholesale in New York during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It was among the eleven largest fur importers in New York.
Thomas Luce & Company was one of the last American whaling companies on the east coast. Based in New Bedford, Massachusetts and founded by an Azorean immigrant, the Thos. Luce company operated thirty-six whaling voyages between 1886 and 1903 into the Atlantic Ocean and Hudson Bay.
Fort Chesterfield, known as Umiajuatnak by the Inuit, was a Hudson's Bay Company motor schooner which distributed supplies arriving in Chesterfield Inlet to isolated communities along Hudson Bay, including Repulse Bay, Eskimo Point, Coral Harbour, Fullerton Harbour, Wager Bay, and the inland community of Baker Lake, during the 1920s. It established a transportation and communications network for the entire region.
Pitsiulartok or Pituilaktok is a small, uninhabited island located at 63°15'N, 90°33'W in Hudson Bay, about 13 km from the community of Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, Canada. The narrow island is about 3.5 km in length and barely 1 km wide at its widest point. Traditionally it was a walrus-hunting ground for the local Inuit, and a landmark for southern whalers. It is part of a loose chain of small islands running along the coast, including Sakpik Island and Promise Island.
Promise Island is located near the western shore of Hudson Bay. It is barely a square kilometre in area and rises 300 ft (91 m) in elevation on its northern side. It is located about 9 km (5.6 mi) from the community of Chesterfield Inlet, Nunavut, Canada, and is part of a loose chain of small islands running along the coast, including the Wag Islands and Pitsiulartok.
The Aivilingmiut are those Inuit who traditionally have resided north of Hudson Bay in Canada, near Naujaat, Chesterfield Inlet, Southampton Island, and Cape Fullerton. They are descendants of the Thule people and are considered a southern subgroup of the Iglulik Inuit. In the late 19th century, they migrated south to work among American whalers hunting in Hudson Bay.
Captain William Penny (1809–1892) was a Scottish shipmaster, whaler and Arctic explorer. He undertook the first maritime search for the ships of Sir John Franklin. In 1840, Penny established the first whaling station in the Cumberland Sound area on Kekerten Island.
Nuvujen Island is an uninhabited Baffin Island offshore island located in the Arctic Archipelago in Nunavut's Qikiqtaaluk Region. It lies on the western shore of Cumberland Sound, between Brown Inlet to the northwest and Robert Peel Inlet to the southeast. Aupaluktut Island lies to its south.
Marble Island is one of several uninhabited Canadian arctic islands in Nunavut, Canada, located within western Hudson Bay. The closest community is Rankin Inlet. In the nineteenth century, the island was valued as a harbour for overwintering.
Dundas Harbour is an abandoned settlement in the Qikiqtaaluk Region, Nunavut, Canada. It is located on Devon Island at the eastern shore of the waterway also named Dundas Harbour. Baffin Bay's Croker Bay is immediately to the west.
The Finback was a schooner wrecked near Chesterfield Inlet in Hudson Bay in 1919. Sergeant W. O. Douglas of the Royal North-West Mounted Police, who helped restore the crew to civilization, described her as the last whaling ship from New England to work in the area. Her captain, George Comer, was a very experienced whaling captain, but scholarly biography says that the ship was supplying a scientific expedition on this voyage.
Hector James Henry Pitchforth was an English trader operating with the Sabellum Trading Company on Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. His death as a hermit led to newspaper attention as the "World's Loneliest Man."
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