The Hudson Bay Company and WWII

In 1925, the Hudson Bay Company established a trading post at the present site of Coral Harbour by combining secondary posts from Chesterfield Inlet and Coats Island. 

The traders brought with them Inuit from Baffin Island, northern Quebec and Keewatin to repopulate the area. 

Just outside Coral Harbour, an American military air base was built in 1941 as a staging point for aircraft being ferried to Europe during World War II. 

The site later became a military training area, then a weather observation point, before becoming the current municipal airport. There are many artifacts and buildings still standing attesting to a more volatile time in the community’s history.  Many of the base’s tools, equipment and bottles were buried and left behind by the military. These items occasionally surface. This site is now protected by the ArchaeologicalOrdinances.