Warning system
It was named a railway divisional point because of its major junction of the railway and the Pagwachuan River. Here, it supported a fur trading post. Packet steamers ran between Pagwa and James Bay to serve the Revillon Freres trading post and community early in the 1900s. Pagwa then became the site of an airfield and airforce base of the Pinetree Line Distant Early Warning system, which was decommissioned in 1968. From 1952 to after 1962, this station was operated by the United States Air Force's 913th Aircraft Control and Warning Squadron.