Cambridge Bay - History

History

The first known people to occupy the area were the Pre-Dorset people, somewhere around 1800 BCE, about 4,000 years ago, and were seal and caribou hunters. The next group to enter the area were a Paleo-Eskimo peoples known as the Dorset, who arrived approximately 500 CE. They were the first known people to have fished for the Arctic char. The last of the Paleo-Eskimo people, who appeared here about 800 CE, were the Tuniit, and evidence of their living quarters can be seen close to Cambridge Bay. The Tuniit, who were known to the Inuit as giants, were taller and stronger than the Inuit, but were easily scared off.

The next group to arrive were the Thule people, ancestors of the modern Inuit, who arrived in the area around 1250 CE from present day Alaska. The Thule people built food cache and stone houses in the area and were noted for their sophisticated tools. Although there is no positive evidence it is suspected that the Thule may have interacted with the Tuniit.

About 500 years ago, around 1500 CE, the modern Inuit made an appearance. Like the Thule they made use of caches, hunted caribou and fished for char. They also hunted seal from the ice in winter and returned to the land in spring. They were also known to make use of inukhuk and built igluit. Although they had no collective name, the various groups of Inuit that made use of native copper for tools have since become known as Copper Inuit and are the same people that Vilhjalmur Stefansson called the Blond Eskimos. The main groups that lived or interacted in the Cambridge Bay area were the Ekalluktogmiut (Iqaluktuurmiutat or Ikaluktuurmiut), Ahiagmiut (Ahiarmiut), the Killinirmuit and the Umingmuktogmiut.

Cambridge Bay was the site of Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and Hudson's Bay Company outposts established during the 1920s. Although at this point most Inuit would have continued the traditional lifestyle and only visited the area rather than live there permanently. The HBC opened a post here in 1921, later than in most places, and built at the site now called the "old town". In 1925 the HBC purchased the Maud, which they renamed the Baymaud, from the creditors of Arctic explorer, Roald Amundsen. The ship sailed to the Arctic in 1926 but it became stuck in the winter ice at Cambridge Bay. The ship was later anchored near the shore and used for various purposes including the first ever radio weather reports from the Arctic coast. In 1930 the ship sank and, although some material was removed at the time, the ship is still visible.

In 1947 following World War II the Cambridge Bay LORAN Tower was built near the previous location of Cambridge Bay. The construction of the LORAN tower involved hiring Inuit who, after the tower was complete, remained in the area. In 1954 construction was completed on the Roman Catholic Church. The church, Cambridge Bay's first, was constructed from local material using seal oil and sand as mortar, and was used for services until the 1960s. In 2006, a large portion of the church, which had been designated a heritage site by the Hamlet Council, was destroyed by a fire which the RCMP said was deliberate.

A Distant Early Warning Line site was established in 1955 and about 200 Inuit were hired to help in the construction. The military presence and the services and economy this represented acted as a magnet for Inuit who had previously used the area as a temporary site for meeting, hunting, fishing and trade, and a permanent community was soon established across the bay in its current location. Unlike the majority of the DEW Line radar sites which were abandoned or automated, this site which changed in 1989, known as CAM-MAIN, remains a manned operation, with about 18 people, as part of the North Warning System.

Originally part of the Fort Smith Region, Northwest Territories, Cambridge Bay became the administrative centre for the Kitikmeot Region, Northwest Territories, and remained so after the 1999 division of the Northwest Territories. In 1982 a division plebiscite was held. Although about 80% of the population then living in what is now Nunavut voted in favour of division, Cambridge Bay was one of only two communities to vote against division. Kugluktuk, then called Coppermine, was the other.

During his campaign for the January 2006 Canadian federal election, Conservative Party leader Stephen Harper unveiled an Arctic Defence plan which would establish a permanent Arctic training school near Cambridge Bay. In August 2007, Harper announced that the training base would be in Resolute Bay, Nunavut.