Anyone who has ever set up a tent on a rough beach or an out-of-the-way cove in northern Labrador knows that the most daring explorers of this forbidding coast were the Inuit and their predecessors, who have lived here for almost 8,000 years. A glance at the archaeological map of Nachvak Fiord shows sites everywhere that it was physically possible to land. Along the entire coast, a kayaker finds stone rings in the most unlikely spots.

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A rich history
Famous explorers including Henry Hudson and Sebastian Cabot passed northern Labrador, but they were all bound elsewhere. The true explorers of this rugged coast were much less celebrated and not even explorers in the traditional sense.

In 1771, the Moravians, a German-speaking Protestant sect, established settlements at Nain, Ramah, Hebron and other sites as far north as the tip of Labrador. They even sailed into Ungava Bay. Pioneers need to be practical as well as spiritual, and the Moravians created maps that served until they were superseded by aerial photography. Other Moravians, such as Samuel K. Hutton, wrote books about their lives and about the people of Labrador.

Abandoned settlements
The missions north of Nain were eventually closed, after the Spanish flu of 1918 decimated the inhabitants or for economic reasons. The manner of these closings is still a sore point with the Inuit of northern Labrador, and in 2005 the Newfoundland government apologized for its actions at two communities.

"Along the entire coast, a kayaker finds stone rings in the most unlikely spots."

On our route, we visited the empty shells of Ramah and Hebron. Little remains of Ramah except gravestones and house foundations, but several dilapidated structures survive at Hebron, including its beautiful long church. Caribou wander the site, feeding on the rich grass and using the buildings as windbreaks.

Other Torngat explorers include Oscar Lieber of the 1860 Eclipse Expedition, who left a detailed and colourful account of his weeks in the mountains, and A. P. Coleman, president of the Alpine Club of Canada, who made the first sport climbs in 1915. Alexander Forbes led two expeditions to map northern Labrador by air in 1931-32. The project succeeded magnificently: just one small valley north of Nachvak Fiord "defied all our efforts to photograph it." Forbes' group named the valley Torngat's Lair, after what they considered the perverse spirit of these mountains.

Jerry Kobalenko is a writer, photographer and adventure traveller based in Canmore, Alta.