In 1576 Britain's Sir Martin Frobisher landed on Baffin Island in search of the Northwest Passage, a hoped-for shortcut to the Orient. It was also believed that there would be gold here, so in 1578, his last of 3 expeditions to the area, Frobisher established a settlement at what is now Iqaluit, the territorial capital. However, neither the passage nor gold were found, so for the next 200 years not much interest was shown in the area. In 1845 the ill-fated Franklin expedition disappeared here, with 128 lives lost. The actual Northwest Passage was not discovered until 1845, and as it ran through the frozen waters of the Arctic archipelago, it was hardly of any practical use.

Current Northwest Passage routes through the Canadian North

The World again took notice of the area 1942 when the Americans built airbase. Iqaluit’s first permanent inhabitant was Nakasuk, an Inuk guide who helped American planners to choose the site, and one of the city’s elementary schools is named after him. Long regarded as a campsite and fishing spot by the Inuit, the place chosen had traditionally been named Iqaluit - "many fish" in Inuktitut - but Canadian and American authorities baptised it Frobisher Bay, after Sir Martin Frobisher

The Hudson Bay Company moved its south Baffin operations to the neighboring valley of Niaqunngut, officially called Apex, in 1949 to take advantage of the airfield. The population of Frobisher Bay increased rapidly during the construction of the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW line, a system of radar stations, see NORAD) in the mid-1950s. Hundreds of construction workers, military personnel and administrative staff moved into the community, and several hundred Inuit followed to take advantage of the access to medical care and jobs the base provided. Of the town's 1,200 residents, 489 were reported to be Inuit in 1957. After 1959, the Canadian government established permanent services at Frobisher Bay, including full-time doctors, a school and social services. The Inuit population grew rapidly in response, as the government encouraged Inuit to settle permanently in communities with government services.

The Hudson Bay Co Today

The American military left Iqaluit in 1963, as ICBMs diminished the strategic value of the DEW line and arctic airbases, but Frobisher Bay remained the government's administrative and logistical centre for much of the eastern arctic. 1964 saw the election of the first elected community council, and 1979 the first mayor. The founding of the Gordon Robertson Educational Centre (now Inukshuk high school) in the early-1970s at Iqaluit confirmed the government's commitment to the community as an administrative centre. At the time of its founding, it was the sole high school operating in more than a seventh of Canadian territory.

On January 1, 1987, the name of this municipality was officially changed from "Frobisher Bay" to "Iqaluit" - aligning official usage with the name that the Inuit population had always used. In December 1995, it was selected in a referendum to be the future capital of Nunavut and on April 19, 2001 it was officially recognized as a city.

History Timeline

1576 - Englishman Martin Frobisher sails into Frobisher Bay believing he has found the route to China

1861 - Charles Francis Hall, an American, camps at the Sylvia Grinnel River and explores the waters of Kojeese Inlet, which he names after his Inuit guide

1942 - U.S. Air Force selects Iqaluit’s current location as the site of a major air base

1943 - The HBC moves its trading post from Ward Inlet to Apex

1955 - Frobisher Bay becomes the center for U.S. Canada Dew Line construction operations

1963 - US military move out of Iqaluit

1964 - First community council formed; population of Frobisher Bay is 900

1970 - Frobisher Bay officially recognized as a Settlement

1974 - Settlement of Frobisher Bay gains Village status

1976 - Inuit present the Nunavut proposal to the Federal government

1979 - First mayor elected

1980 - Frobisher Bay designated as a Town

1982 - Government of Canada agrees in principle to the creation of Nunavut

1987 - Frobisher Bay officially becomes Iqaluit, reverting to its original Inuktitut name meaning “place of many fish”

1993 - The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement is signed in Iqaluit

1995 - Nunavut residents select Iqaluit as capital of the new territory

April 1, 1999 - The Territory of Nunavut officially comes into being

April 19, 2001 - Iqaluit receives its Order of Official status as a City