Pre-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 caches 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. 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
European history The first Europeans to reach Cambridge Bay were overland
Arctic explorers led by
Thomas Simpson in 1839; they were searching for the
Northwest Passage and had crossed the
sea ice on foot. Another overland expedition led by
John Rae reached Cambridge Bay in 1851, and the first ship to reach the bay was
HMS Enterprise under
Richard Collinson who wintered there in 18521853. Both Rae and Collinson were searching for
Franklin's lost expedition. Collinson's ship came from the west, having entered the
Canadian Arctic via the
Bering Strait. This was the furthest east any large ship travelled from the Bering Strait until
Henry Larsen's west–east sailing of the
Northwest Passage aboard
St. Roch in 1941. Cambridge Bay was the site of
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and
Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) 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. 's ship
Maud at Cambridge Bay prior to being salvaged. This was not the ship in which Amundsen was the first to sail the
Northwest Passage; that was the
Gjøa. In 1925 the HBC purchased the historic ship
Maud, which they renamed the
Baymaud, from the creditors of Norwegian explorer,
Roald Amundsen. The ship sailed to the
Arctic in 1926 but it became stuck in the winter ice at Cambridge Bay. The
Maud 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 remained visible for 86 years. 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. On 27 April 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. Originally part of the
Fort Smith Region, Northwest Territories, Cambridge Bay became the administrative centre for the
Kitikmeot Region, Northwest Territories, and remained so for the new
Kitikmeot Region 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.
21st century The Kitikmeot Regional Health Centre opened in 2005. Cambridge Bay is the location of the
Canadian High Arctic Research Station (CHARS) campus as announced by Prime Minister
Stephen Harper on 24 August 2010. This multidisciplinary station is operated year-round by
Polar Knowledge Canada, a federal agency. It is a keystone of Canada's Northern Strategy. Its mandate is stated: == Geography ==