Cape Chidley is a headland located on the eastern shore of Killiniq Island, Canada, at the northeastern tip of the

Labrador Peninsula The Labrador Peninsula, or Quebec-Labrador Peninsula, is a large peninsula in eastern Canada. It is bounded by the Hudson Bay to the west, the Hudson Strait to the north, the Labrador Sea to the east, and the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the southe ...

. Cape Chidley was named by English explorer John Davis on August 1, 1587, after his friend and fellow explorer John Chidley. On October 22, 1943, the landed just south of Cape Chidley and set up Weather Station Kurt to collect data about the weather. Originally, Cape Chidley was meant to be the site for a long-range radar station called "N-30." It was to fall within plans for the

Pinetree Line The Pinetree Line was a series of radar stations located across the northern United States and southern Canada at about the 50th parallel north, along with a number of other stations located on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts. Run by North Ame ...

, a series of radar stations across the 50th parallel. Supplies were moved to the site by ship during 1951–52, but in late 1952–early 1953 the site was moved to Resolution Island.The Pinetree Line
The Mystery of Site N-30
Oct, 2002

Location

Sometimes spelled ''Cape Chudleigh'', Cape Chidley is located on the short boundary between the province of

Newfoundland and Labrador Newfoundland and Labrador (; french: Terre-Neuve-et-Labrador; frequently abbreviated as NL) is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region ...

and the territory of

Nunavut Nunavut ( , ; iu, ᓄᓇᕗᑦ , ; ) is the largest and northernmost territory of Canada. It was separated officially from the Northwest Territories on April 1, 1999, via the '' Nunavut Act'' and the '' Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act'' ...

on Killniq Island. It forms the northernmost point of

Labrador , nickname = "The Big Land" , etymology = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = Canada , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 ...

. The

Dominion of Newfoundland Newfoundland was a British dominion in eastern North America, today the modern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. It was established on 26 September 1907, and confirmed by the Balfour Declaration of 1926 and the Statute of Wes ...

, having been a separate country at the time that Canada's Arctic islands were assigned in this manner, shared a boundary with the

Dominion of Canada While a variety of theories have been postulated for the name of Canada, its origin is now accepted as coming from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word , meaning 'village' or 'settlement'. In 1535, indigenous inhabitants of the present-day Quebec Ci ...

on Killiniq Island. The territory of Labrador included the entire Atlantic watershed of the Labrador Peninsula and its islands. CapeChidleyAreaMap

The northern and western part of Killiniq Island (under Nunavut's jurisdiction) drains into

Ungava Bay Ungava Bay (french: baie d'Ungava, ; iu, ᐅᖓᕙ ᑲᖏᖅᓗᒃ/) is a bay in northeastern Canada separating Nunavik (far northern Quebec) from Baffin Island. Although not geographically apparent, it is considered to be a marginal sea of the A ...

and the

Hudson Strait Hudson Strait (french: Détroit d'Hudson) links the Atlantic Ocean and Labrador Sea to Hudson Bay in Canada. This strait lies between Baffin Island and Nunavik, with its eastern entrance marked by Cape Chidley in Newfoundland and Labrador an ...

. Thus Cape Chidley is also the terminus of the

Laurentian Divide The Laurentian Divide also called the Northern Divide and locally the '' height of land'', is a continental divide in central North America that separates the Hudson Bay watershed to the north from the Gulf of Mexico watershed to the south and t ...

, which separates the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, ...

watershed Watershed is a hydrological term, which has been adopted in other fields in a more or less figurative sense. It may refer to: Hydrology * Drainage divide, the line that separates neighbouring drainage basins * Drainage basin, called a "watershe ...

from the

Atlantic Ocean The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth#Surface, Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the "Old World" of Afr ...

watershed. (Some sources include

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay ( crj, text=ᐐᓂᐯᒄ, translit=Wînipekw; crl, text=ᐐᓂᐹᒄ, translit=Wînipâkw; iu, text=ᑲᖏᖅᓱᐊᓗᒃ ᐃᓗᐊ, translit=Kangiqsualuk ilua or iu, text=ᑕᓯᐅᔭᕐᔪᐊᖅ, translit=Tasiujarjuaq; french: b ...

in the Atlantic Ocean watershed, though the Laurentian Divide has been long established and places Hudson Bay with the Arctic Ocean watershed.) The cape marks the south end of the entrance to the Hudson Strait, opposite Resolution Island. The closest community to Cape Chidley was Port Burwell, Nunavut, until it was evacuated in 1978. Killiniq Island itself is separated from mainland North America by the narrow McLelan Strait. The

Torngat Mountains The Torngat Mountains are a mountain range on the Labrador Peninsula at the northern tip of Newfoundland and Labrador and eastern Quebec. They are part of the Arctic Cordillera.

run along the coast of Labrador and terminate at Killiniq Island. The top of the knoll forming the headland at Cape Chidley has an elevation of , making the cape considerably higher than either of its two flanking headlands. The Cape Chidley Islands lie at the north end of the cape.

References

External links

Pictures of Cape Chidley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chidley, Cape Chidley Chidley Borders of Newfoundland and Labrador Borders of Nunavut

Location

References

Further reading

External links