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King William Island

Article by S.C. Zoltai

Published Online February 7, 2006

Last Edited March 4, 2015

King William Island, Nunavut, 13 111 km2, in the Arctic Archipelago.
Ross, Sir James Clark
On 1 June 1831 Ross discovered the North Magnetic Pole, set up the British flag and erected a cairn (courtesy National Portrait Gallery).
Sir John Franklin, naval officer, arctic explorer
Best known for the famous search for his lost expedition, Franklin was a bold explorer who mapped more of Canada's coast than any explorer except Vancouver (courtesy Library and Archives Canada/C-1352).
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King William Island, Nunavut, 13 111 km2, in the Arctic Archipelago, is a lake-studded, gently rolling plain, with a maximum elevation of 137 m. Its vegetation, a polar semidesert, serves as summer range for mainland caribou. It was discovered 1830 by Sir John Ross and named after the British monarch King William IV. Remains of the ill-fated Franklin expedition have been found here.

See also Franklin Search.

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