The town is located approximately 16 km (9.9 mi) east from the Marine Atlantic Ferry Terminal in Port aux Basques along Route 470.

Isle aux Morts has a rich Atlantic heritage and popular coastal scenery.

In the 1800s, the families moved from the islands to land and settled in what is now present day Isle aux Morts.

The local Orange lodge was constructed in 1914 with free labor by a group of men who previously used the school for their meetings.

The town is mentioned in the lyrics to the Tragically Hip song "The Dire Wolf" on their In Violet Light album.

On November 26, 1981, Wayne Mushrow discovered a very rare and working Portuguese mariner's astrolabe on a shipwreck near Isle aux Morts.

[2][3] In 1983, at the same site, Mushrow found a French mariner's astrolabe stamped with the year "1617" and the name "Adrian Holland".

Since the cod moratorium in the 1990s, the town has struggled and lost near half of its permanent residents because of the closing of the fish plant and many secondary sources of work.

In neighboring communities guided fishing trips and boat tours to nearby resettled ghost towns are available in the summer months.