Bernard Harbour

{{Short description|Abandoned settlement and bay in Nunavut, Canada}} {{Use Canadian English|date=January 2023}} {{Infobox body of water | name = Bernard Harbour | native_name = | native_name_lang = | other_name =  | image = Bernard Harbour distant view from hills (38801).jpg | alt = | caption = | image_bathymetry = | alt_bathymetry = | caption_bathymetry =  | location = [[Nunavut]], [[Canada]] | group = | coordinates = {{coord|format=dms|region:CA-NU_type:waterbody|display=inline,title}}<ref>{{Cite cgndb |OACAM |Bernard Harbour |accessdate=27 January 2025}}</ref> | type = [[Bay]] | etymology = | part_of = [[Dolphin and Union Strait]] | inflow = | rivers = | outflow = | oceans = | catchment =  | area =  | depth =  | max-depth =  | salinity = | shore = | temperature_high =  | temperature_low =  | frozen = | islands = Chantry Island | islands_category =  | pushpin_map = Canada Nunavut | pushpin_label_position = | pushpin_map_alt = Map of Nunavut | pushpin_map_caption =  | website = | reference = }}

'''Bernard Harbour''' ([[Inuit languages|Inuit]]: ''Nulahugiuq'')<ref>Issenman, Betty. ''Sinews of Survival: The living legacy of Inuit clothing''. UBC Press, 1997. pp252-254</ref> is a bay on the mainland of [[Nunavut]], Canada. It is situated on [[Dolphin and Union Strait]], southwest of [[Sutton Island (Nunavut)|Sutton Island]]. The closest inhabited community is [[Kugluktuk]], about {{cvt|100|km|mi}} south of Bernard Harbour.

At one time, it was the site of a [[Hudson's Bay Company]] [[trading post]]. It is also a former [[Distant Early Warning Line]] (PIN-C) and current [[North Warning System]] site.<ref name=DEW>{{cite web |url=http://www.lswilson.ca/dewline.htm |title=The DEW LINE Sites in Canada, Alaska & Greenland |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100124180156/https://www.lswilson.ca/dewline.htm |archive-date=2010-01-24 |url-status=dead}}</ref> As of August 2004, there were several abandoned structures remaining at the site.<ref>{{Cite web |title=PIN-C Bernard Harbour, Nunavut |url=https://lswilson.dewlineadventures.com/pinc/ |access-date=2024-11-01 |website=The DEWLine |language=en-CA}}</ref>

The [[butterfly]] ''[[Colias johanseni]]'' is found in the area.<ref name="Layberry">{{cite book|last=Layberry|first=Ross A.|author2=Peter W. Hall|author3=J. Donald Lafontaine|title=The butterflies of Canada |publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=1998 |series=Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary Subjects Series|pages=108|isbn=0-8020-7881-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tJpoXFZBBnAC&dq=%22bernard+harbour%22&pg=PA108}}</ref>

==Geography== Bernard Harbour is a bay that recedes southwestward about {{Convert|2|mi|order=flip}} from an entrance that is about {{Convert|5|mi|order=flip}} wide. Chantry Island and a smaller island extend nearly across the entrance of the bay. The mainland shore of the bay consists of numerous stony points and intervening bights, with beaches of sand or gravel, behind which the land, within a distance of {{Convert|2|mi|order=flip}}, is intersected by many ravines and rises to elevations of {{Convert|120|ft|order=flip}}.<ref name=CanNorth>{{cite book |author1=Georgetown University, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations |title=Canadian North |pages=369-370 |date=1956 |publisher=Technical Assistant to Chief of Naval Operations for Polar Projects (OP-O3A3) |location=United States |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=etEPAQAAIAAJ |access-date=27 January 2025 |language=en}} {{PD-notice}}</ref>

The harbour is well sheltered and can accommodate ships up to {{cvt|20|ft|order=flip}} in draught.<ref name="Acland">{{cite book|last=Canada. Dept. of the Interior. Northwest Territories and Yukon Branch, Lachan Taylor Burwash|title=Canada's western Arctic: Report on investigations in 1925-26, 1928-29, and 1930|publisher=F.A. Acland|year=1931|edition=Digitized May 30, 2007|pages=13|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RY41AAAAMAAJ&q=%22bernard+harbour%22}}</ref>

==History== [[File:CAE house at Bernard Harbour (38775).jpg|thumb|left|CAE house at Bernard Harbour, July 1916]] From 1913 to 1916, Bernard Harbour was the base of the southern party of the [[Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913–1916|Canadian Arctic Expedition]] (CAE), led by [[Rudolph Martin Anderson]].<ref name=CanNorth/> It was named by Anderson in 1914 after Captain Joseph F. Bernard.<ref name=Jenness>{{cite book |author1=Stuart Edward Jenness |title=Stefansson, Dr. Anderson and the Canadian Arctic Expedition, 1913-1918 A Story of Exploration, Science and Sovereignty |date=2011 |publisher=Canadian Museum of History |isbn=9781772824186 |page=244 |url=https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Stefansson_Dr_Anderson_and_the_Canadian/1Jf2EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0 |access-date=27 January 2025}}</ref>

In 1916, a few weeks after the CAE had left,<ref name=Jenness/> the [[Hudson's Bay Company]] (HBC) opened a fur trade post on Bernard Harbour, originally called Fort Bacon, after Fur Trade Commissioner N.H. Bacon. When James Thomson became commissioner in 1920, the post was renamed to Fort Thomson. Circa 1925, it became known as Bernard Harbour. In 1930, the Hudson's Bay Company vessel [[Aklavik (HBC vessel)|''Aklavik'']] over-wintered at Bernard Harbour, where she sank, but was refloated and repaired.<ref name=KitikmeotHeritage/> In 1931, an outpost was built on Read Island (also spelled Reid Island) on the opposite side of Dolphin and Union Strait, and the following year, all operations were moved to Read Island and the Bernard Harbour post closed.<ref name=HBC>{{cite web |title=Hudson's Bay Company: Bernard Harbour |url=https://pam.minisisinc.com/scripts/mwimain.dll/144/PAM_AUTHORITY/AUTH_DESC_DET_REP/SISN%201992?sessionsearch |website=pam.minisisinc.com |publisher=Archives of Manitoba - Keystone Archives Descriptive Database |access-date=2025-01-27}}</ref>

In 1957, a [[Distant Early Warning Line|DEW]] Intermediate site was established at Bernard Harbour, designated "PIN-C". It was an expansive facility with airstrip and dock facility for resupplying. It was closed and site abandoned in 1963.<ref name=DEW/> In September 1991, it reopened as an unattended [[North Warning System|NWS]] Short Range Radar site {{Convert|5.0|km}} southwest of the former DEW site.

==See also== * [[List of communities in Nunavut]]

==References== {{Reflist|refs= <ref name=KitikmeotHeritage> {{cite news | url = http://www.kitikmeotheritage.ca/Angulalk/hudsons/scottyg/scotty.htm | title = Scotty Gall | publisher = [[Kitikmeot Heritage]] | archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20040721191932/http://www.kitikmeotheritage.ca/Angulalk/hudsons/scottyg/scotty.htm | archivedate = 2004-07-21 | accessdate = 2017-04-29 | url-status = dead | quote = Gall returned to the HBC briefly in 1930 or 1931 after the Aklavik was frozen in and sank at Bernard Harbour. He went in and got the Aklavik back afloat and working. }} </ref> }}

==External links== {{Commons category-inline}}

[[Category:Former populated places in the Kitikmeot Region]] [[Category:Ghost towns in Nunavut]] [[Category:Hudson's Bay Company trading posts in Nunavut]] [[Category:Bays of the Kitikmeot Region]]