Barracks at Cape Fullerton, Nunavut, Canada, 1904. Photo by J. D. Moodie. The original notes with this photograph added "Officers' Quarters only built at that time and occupied by Detachment, 1904."
Although Cape Fullerton was traditionally home to migrant Inuit, including the Aivilingmiut and the Kivallirmiut (Caribou Inuit), today the nearest permanently populated settlement is Chesterfield Inlet, roughly 100 km (62 mi) to the southwest.[3]
In the early 1900s, Fullerton Harbour was a popular wintering station for American and Scottish whaling ships and a trading point between Inuit and southern whalers. In September 1903, the first North-West Mounted Police outpost was established at Cape Fullerton both to establish Canadian sovereignty as well as to administer whaling licenses, collect customs, control liquor, and maintain order. The NWMP closed about 1914.[3]
Aivilingmiut woman Niviatsinaq ("Shoofly Comer"), wife of George Comer, at Cape Fullerton, circa 1903-1904
Comer spent two winters, 1910–1912, frozen in the ice at Cape Fullerton, during which time he made phonograph records of the local Inuit, and collected folklore and legends of the Iluilirmiut of Adelaide Peninsula (Iluilik), Hudson Bay. The vessel also took five small whales which yielded 910 kg (2,000 lb) of baleen, then valued at $10,000.[6]
In 1924, an old carpenter's shop and an outbuilding were dismantled from the remains of Cape Fullerton Outpost and the lumber shipped to Chesterfield Inlet.
In the winter of 1940–41, "the disused Police barracks at Fullerton Harbour" were still being used for refuge for travellers.[8]
^Ross, W. Gillies. "George Comer"(PDF). Arctic Profiles. ucalgary.ca. pp. 294–295. Archived from the original(PDF) on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 30 March 2008.
