page_title: Sirmilik National Park
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Sirmilik National Park / History
caption_attribution_description: Inuit on the sea ice in front of foggy Bylot Island (Sirmilik National Park, Canada)
context_page_description: Sirmilik National Park is a national park located in Qikiqtaaluk, Nunavut, Canada, established in 1999. Situated within the Arctic Cordillera, the park is composed of three areas: most of Bylot Island with the exception for a few areas that are Inuit-owned lands, Oliver Sound, and Baffin Island's Borden Peninsula. Much of the park is bordered by water.
  Geographically, it is representative of the Northern Eastern Arctic Lowlands Natural Region as well as parts of the Lancaster Sound Marine Region.
context_section_description: Extensive archaeological exploration of the park area has indicated that the area has been inhabited by humans for thousands of years.  The earliest known are predecessors of the modern-day Inuit.
  The area was explored by European whalers and by explorers in their search for the Northwest Passage. In the 1610s, the area was surveyed by British explorers William Baffin and Robert Bylot. They named several features of the area including Lancaster Sound and Bylot Island in 1616. It was 200 years before the next official attempt to find the Passage through this area.  The expedition by the British explorer John Ross in 1818 confirmed the accuracy of Baffin's charts, but ended when he saw what he believed were mountains blocking the end of Lancaster Sound. The area was later thoroughly explored during an extensive aerial mapping program of Northern Canada by the Canadian Government which took from the 1930s until the late 1950s to complete.
  The Byam Martin Mountains on Bylot Island were climbed by Pat Biard and then Ben Farris in 1954, including Mount Thule. In 1963 British explorer Bill Tilman traversed the island, but did not climb any of the larger peaks. In 1977, a Canadian expedition of Rob Kelly and others climbed 20 peaks of Bylot Island, and in 1984 Mike Schmidt with others climbed 28 peaks, including 16 first ascents.
  The park was first established as a bird sanctuary in 1965 and monitored by the Canadian Wildlife Service because of its seabird colonies.  The area officially became a national park in 2001. Today, the area is inhabited by the Inuit who continue to hunt and fish as their ancestors did.
  The park was the subject of a short film in 2011's National Parks Project, directed by Zacharias Kunuk and scored by Andrew Whiteman, Dean Stone and Tanya Tagaq.
caption: Inuit on the sea ice in front of Bylot Island
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