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Qarmaq relics, Tinittuktuq Flats (Wager Bay)
Little is written about Wager Bay's early history, as until the 19th century the area was inhabited by Inuit who traditionally passed down their history by word-of-mouth.
There is, however, a remarkable quantity of stone relics, mainly tent rings from Thule people, inuksuit, caches, and shelters which provide evidence that the coast of Wager Bay has been inhabited for thousands of years. About 500 archaeological sites have been identified in recent years as well from Dorset culture (500 BC - 1000 AD), as from Thule culture (1000 - 1800 AD) and the last two centuries.
Barrenland Inuit (or Caribou Inuit) were not a homogeneous tribe, but families of quite diverse groups:
Ukkusiksalingmiut from Back River and Hayes River regions
Aivilingmiut from the Naujaat region
Qairnirmiut from Baker Lake and Chesterfield Inlet regions
Netsilik Inuit (Natsilingmiut) from around Kugaaruk and Taloyoak
First Europeans[edit]
In 1742, Christopher Middleton on his sailing ship Furnace was the first European to enter the fjord, which he could not leave for several weeks because of ice flow.
He named the bay after Sir Charles Wager, First Lord of the British Admiralty, and an inlet where he anchored Douglas Harbour after James and Henry Douglas, sponsors of his expedition. The Savage Islands nearby he named after "savage Eskimos" he met there.
Middleton was not successful in his search for the Northwest Passage, and neither was William Moore with his sloop Discovery five years later. As the region was too remote and thought to be useless, the bay was not again recorded or visited by Europeans for more than a century. In the 1860s, American explorer Charles Francis Hall's two-masted ship Monticello reached Roes Welcome Sound in 1864 while searching for John Franklin's lost Northwest Passage expedition of 1845 and had to overwinter at the mouth of Wager Bay.
In 1879, another American expedition led by Lieutenant Frederick Schwatka searching for John Franklin passed nearby Wager Bay by land. The region eventually became recognized when the fur trade started there at the end of the 19th century.
Early 20th century[edit]
At the beginning of the 20th century, the Canadian government showed an interest in the Wager Bay region and sent geologist Albert Peter Low on Neptune in order to establish Canada's sovereignty over the Arctic north.
At nearly the same time, in 1900, the American whaler George G. Cleveland, working alone, established a whaling station near the entrance of the bay, that operated for the next four years. Despite his closure of the station, Scottish whalers for some time tried their luck to hunt marine mammals in the Wager area. Large iron harpoon heads and other remnants are still found on the Savage Islands.
In 1910, the Royal North-West Mounted Police (RNWMP, precursor of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) set up a police post at Wager Bay coast, near the Savage Islands. A police boat wreck in a small inlet on the southeast shore of Wager Bay is testimony to the brief presence of police there.
Abandoned Hudson's Bay Company outpost, Ford Lake
In 1915, George Cleveland set up a temporary—and the region's first—trading post, near the mouth of Wager Bay. In 1919, Cleveland, now working for the HBC, again set up a trading post in the mouth of Wager Bay. It was transferring building materials for the establishment of the Repulse Bay HBC post. Situated at a favorable location at the northern end of Roes Welcome Sound, this post became important for the company's intention to expand their business towards the north.
Alongside these local activities, the Hudson's Bay Company, during the first years of the 20th century, made a great effort to get the fur trade under control. They started to build up a large and dense network of posts from the barren lands of northwest Hudson Bay to the northern coast of the continent. According to those plans, a post at the outermost edge of Wager Bay should play a key role. That new post was meant to include the Ukkusiksalingmiut area to the Back River estuary, 250 km (160 mi) to the northwest, into the company's strategy, thereby, if ever possible, preventing commercial activities of competitors, Revillon Frères, operating from their Baker Lake base. In the late summer of 1925, the two-masted schooner Fort Chesterfield entered the channel, and, following the advice of local Inuit, found a well-protected inlet in Tusjujak (now Ford Lake, named after J. L. Ford, post manager in 1929) to establish their strategic station.
During the first years, things went quite well. Besides offering usual supply goods, the post supported the Inuit in general, and gave, as far as possible, medical assistance. Thus, it became a meeting point that allowed Inuit from distant camps to exchange news as well. In December 1929, twenty-two Inuit families were counted, 107 persons in total, camping in their igloos nearby. Soon later, fur trade stopped booming. Hudson's Bay Company changed their major post into an outpost in 1933 and entrusted an Inuk, Iqungajuq (Wager-Dick), with its management. He thereby got the chance to start his own business in the fur trade. Wager-Dick and his family lived in the post buildings and ran the outpost until 1946. The company was eventually successful with its strategy towards its competitor and bought Revillon Frères in 1936.
Ukkusiksalik National Park
Catholic missionaries, Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who passed by in those years set up a small mission on one of Savage Islands, but never had great success and withdrew, when the activities of Hudson's Bay Company ended by mid-1940s and the Inuit had migrated into communities.
Some 30 years later, from 1979 to 1981, Inuit from Rankin Inlet tried to revive their former homeland, but without success. The area is presently unoccupied by people, except for occasional visitors and local Inuit who hunt in the area.
Declared a national park on August 23, 2003, Ukkusiksalik became Canada's 41st national park.
