[5]: 11  A strange black rock was discovered on a small island in the bay, which, according to an account from Frobisher's financier, Michael Lok, was named "hawlls Illand" [sic] after shipmaster Christopher Hall.

It proved impossible to establish a colony on the island, but a small stone house was built and some materials were buried to prepare for an eventual return.

[3]: 8 In 1861, Charles Francis Hall, having travelled to the Arctic in search of the survivors of Sir John Franklin's lost expedition, was informed by local Inuit about historic European exploration of the Frobisher Bay area.

Based on interviews with Inuit Elders, for which he devised a comprehensive questionnaire,[5]: 31–2  and artifacts and structures discovered on the island, Hall concluded that Kodlunarn had been one of the sites of Frobisher's mining voyages.

[2] In 1990 the Canadian Museum of Civilization organized an expedition to Kodlunarn, leading to the establishment of the Meta Incognita Project the next year, whose goal is to support research and conservation of the island and other sites associated with Frobisher's Arctic exploration.

[8]: 196–7 Kodlunarn Island is located near the northeastern shore of Frobisher Bay and lies 190 km (120 mi) from Iqaluit, the capital city of Nunavut.

[2] The island, which measures about 7 ha (0.070 km2; 17 acres) in area,[note 2] is largely surrounded by vertical cliffs, and its terrain consists primarily of barren rock and gravel.

In 1990 all that remained of the above-ground structure was a small pit, with debris and rocks that previously formed the walls of the house scattered around its vicinity;[3]: 12, 22  the foundation is comparatively intact.