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Iqaluit
was founded in 1942 as an American airbase, geographically located to
provide a stop-over and refueling site for short range fighter aircraft
being ferried across the Atlantic to support the war effort in Europe.
Iqaluit's first permanent inhabitant was Nakasuk, an Inuk guide who
helped American Air Force planners to choose a site with a large flat
area suitable for a landing strip. Long regarded as a campsite and
fishing spot by the Inuit, the place chosen had traditionally been named
Iqaluit – "place of many fish" in Inuktitut – but Canadian and American
authorities named it Frobisher Bay, after the name of the body of water
it abuts.
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| Iqaluit Airport |
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The Hudson's Bay Company moved its south Baffin
operations to the neighboring valley of Niaqunngut, officially called
Apex, in 1949 to take advantage of the airfield. The population of
Frobisher Bay increased rapidly during the construction of the Distant
Early Warning Line (DEW line, a system of radar stations, see North
American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)) in the mid-1950s. Hundreds
of construction workers, military personnel, and administrative staff
moved into the community, and several hundred Inuit followed to take
advantage of the access to medical care and jobs the base provided. In
1957, 489 of the town's 1,200 residents were reported to be Inuit. After
1959, the Canadian government established permanent services at
Frobisher Bay, including full-time doctors, a school and social
services. The Inuit population grew rapidly in response, as the
government encouraged Inuit to settle permanently in communities with
government services.
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| DEW Line Map |
The American military left
Iqaluit in 1963, as intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM)
diminished the strategic value of the DEW line and Arctic airbases, but
Frobisher Bay remained the government's administrative and logistical
centre for much of the eastern Arctic. In 1964, the first elections were
held for a community council, and in 1979 for the first mayor.
On
1 January 1987, the name of this municipality was officially changed
from "Frobisher Bay" to "Iqaluit" - aligning official usage with the
name that the Inuit population had always used. In December 1995,
Iqaluit was selected to serve as Nunavut's future capital in a
territory-wide referendum, in which it was chosen over Rankin Inlet. On
19 April 2001, it was officially re-designated as a city.
