History and Settlement
Robert Bylot was the first European to sight the island in 1616. William Edward Parry charted its south coast in 1819-20. In 1850 Edwin De Haven sailed up Wellington Channel and sighted the Grinnell Peninsula.
An outpost was established at Dundas Harbour in 1924, and it was leased to Hudson's Bay Company nine years later. The collapse of fur prices and the need to cut relief expenses led to the dispersal of 53 Baffin Island Inuit families on the island in 1934. It was considered a disaster due to wind conditions and the much colder climate, and the Inuit chose to leave in 1936. Dundas Harbour was populated again in the late 1940s, but it was closed again in 1951. Only the ruins of a few buildings remain.
Read more about this topic: Devon Island
Famous quotes containing the words history and, history and/or settlement:
“All history and art are against us, but we still expect happiness in love.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“We know only a single science, the science of history. One can look at history from two sides and divide it into the history of nature and the history of men. However, the two sides are not to be divided off; as long as men exist the history of nature and the history of men are mutually conditioned.”
—Karl Marx (1818–1883)
“... if the Settlement seeks its expression through social activity, it must learn the difference between mere social unrest and spiritual impulse.”
—Jane Addams (1860–1935)