To call Hudson Bay a bay sells it somewhat short in terms of scale. It cuts a fist-shaped,
800,000 square km chunk out of Canada's northeastern shores on the Arctic Ocean.1 Indigenous populations have occupied it and the surrounding lands for thousands of
years, and by the time Europeans arrived, Algonquian, Chipewyan, and Inuit groups
comprised the majority populace.2
In 1578, Martin Frobisher sailed into Hudson Strait, but it would be Henry Hudson
that would sail through the strait and into the great bay in 1610.3 Hudson Bay was crucial to settlement and trade in what would become Canada, as it
provided a direct route to a wealth of fur resources, particularly in the years during
and following the Rupert's Land grant.4
1. James Marsh, Hudson Bay,The Canadian Encyclopedia.