At the beginning of the 20th century, the Révillon Frères company set up a fur trading post in Inukjuak, originally called Port Harrison.

In 1927 an Anglican mission was established, followed by a post office and Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) detachment in 1935, a nursing station in 1947, and a school in 1951.

At the time, the relocation was described as a humanitarian gesture to save the lives of starving native people and enable them to continue a subsistence lifestyle.

It was, in reality, a forced migration as part of a plan to establish a Canadian presence in the High Arctic and assert its sovereignty with human flagpoles.

It is by North American standards located far south of warm-summer inland areas like Yellowknife and Fairbanks where vegetation thrives.

Being on the 58th parallel it is located closer to the equator than cities like Stockholm, Oslo, Helsinki and Saint Petersburg, all of which have far gentler year-round climates.

On similar latitudes in Scandinavia in northern Europe, or the northernmost tip of mainland Scotland the summers are close to 3 °C (5.4 °F) warmer and winters are around the freezing point – demonstrating the extreme chilliness of the climate.

[8] During the early winter snowfall is very heavy, averaging 50 cm (20 in) in November but tapering off somewhat as the freezing of Hudson Bay completes and reduces the availability of moisture.

Occasional spells of hot weather occur when the wind drives air from the hotter continent onto the coast: the record high temperature is 30 °C (86 °F) on 8 June 1955.

By the end of September temperatures are already falling to near freezing and October sees the beginning of the long winter and a return to heavy snow driven by the western side of the Icelandic Low.