Chesterfield Inlet Development

The Municipality of Chesterfield Inlet is located in Nunavut, just south of the Arctic Circle in northern Canada. Chester's history dates back to about the mid-1800's, and was once the Hudson's Bay Company Ltd. main supply centre for other posts in the area during the early fur-pelt trade industry along the west coast of Hudson Bay. Chesterfield Inlet is known as Igluligaarjuk in Inuktitut, "Place with a few Thule houses". Chesterfield Inlet was first visited by Sir Thomas Button with the small ship Discovery in 1612 - 13, and through the century, a number of British explorers sailed the inlet, in search of the elusive Northwest Passage expedition. Chesterfield; named about 1749, after Philip Dormer (Stanhope), 4th Earl of Chesterfield (1694-1773) who was the Secretary of State from 1746-48 Bowden's Inlet, and is the well known author of "Chesterfield's Letters" and other works. From the mid 1800's to the beginning of this century, whalers sailed the area regularly and often wintered here or at Depot Island or Cape Fullerton, and Marble Island. They counted on the Inuit to hunt for them and to man their whale boats during the nomadic period. On August 23, 1929, the National Film Board of Canada produced a film documenting the arrival of the SS Beothic's to Chesterfield Inlet. The film highlights the LS of Chesterfield Inlet on shore with a launch sailing past in the foreground.