Although currently there is no permanent settlement in the Strathcona Fiord area, stone tent rings and other archaeological features indicate past human habitation.

Eureka, about 170 km (110 mi) to the northwest, is a weather station and staging point for scientific expeditions and for other visitors to Ellesmere Island and the Qikiqtaaluk Region.

[3] Coal deposits in the Strathcona Fiord area are ranked from lignite to sub-bituminous and have been estimated to comprise roughly 1 billion tonnes.

These fossils, including plant and animal remains, have provided a unique opportunity for understanding the effect of climatic change through the past 4 or 5 million years on the Arctic environment, and on its flora and fauna.

This exceptional site also has yielded remains of pollen, insects, mollusks, fish (a percid), frogs and mammals such as an unusual rodent, a deerlet (Boreameryx), 3-toed horse, an extinct beaver (Dipoides), a rabbit (Hypolagus), an unusual shrew (Arctisorex polaris), a primitive black bear (Ursus abstrusus), a badger (Arctomeles), and several other carnivores.

[16] The assemblage of Pliocene plant macrofossils (wood, leaves, cones and seeds) is typical of present-day boreal forest, as it includes alder (Alnus), birch (Betula), bogbean (Menyanthes trifoliata), larch (Larix), sweet gale (Myrica gale), spruce (Picea), pine (Pinus), and lingonberry (Vaccinium vitis-idaea), as well as the southern boreal tree, the white cedar (Thuja occidentalis).

[6][17] The first High Arctic terrestrial fossil vertebrates were discovered in 1975, in the Strathcona Fiord by a team led by Mary R. Dawson from the Carnegie Museum.

[18] Mammal fossils are extremely diverse, including the rhino-like brontotheres, the hippo-like Coryphodon, a tapir like relative (Thuliadanta), an early horse (Hyracotherium?

[23][24] Analysis of nearby fossil leaf sites from central Ellesmere Island of the same age indicate that these forests grew under very high rainfall, and can be considered to have represented a polar rainforest.