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During the 1920s and 30s there was a RCMP detachment at Pearce Point during
the summer months when the Inuit maintained a seasonal hunting camp.

Arctic 2002: Pearse Point

Trish
2004-01-08 21:46:05

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Exploring inland, we followed a gravel road up and over the first hill. In
the past, Pearce Point was one of the DEW line stations, early warning radar
against the threat of attack in the cold war. The captain earlier told me
stories of the type of men working at these stations, half-crazed lonely men
who'd get south for only six weeks twice a year. A lifestyle devoid of all
free choice; completely dictated by the force of routine and the company of
their fellow station workers. Separated from society effectively in the
pre-satellite world and staring at radar paranoid of attacks, there's little
wonder that the minds of some of these men might become a little unhinged.

The remains of the DEW line station comb the landscape at Pearce Point, a
network of gravel roads leading in circles. We climbed one and reached a
trailer that may have once been accommodations but now lay in shambles with
broken windows and missing doors. The inside walls were covered with
graffiti, names from previous coast guard visitors dating as early as 1985,
a list to which Kharla and Ryan added their names. More interesting was a
native who'd described a trip he was undertaking in 1999, travelling by
snowmachine and sled dogs from Barrow, Alaska, to an eventual destination in
Greenland. I hope he found his way safely.

Further above this trailer was a large metal hut or barn labelled the Pearce
Point Science Station. I've no idea what research was originally conducted
here, and going inside the hut provided no further clues. The hut was empty
except for more discarded clothes and ominously, the skeletal remains of the
spine and ribs of a large mammal. While relieved that it wasn't a human
form, looking at the remains of a bear's dinner, the equivalent to finding
yourself in a bear's den, was mildly uncomfortable. ...