School History
Samuel Hearne (1745 –1792) was an explorer, author, naturalist and fur trader, who, in 1771, left the Fort Prince of Wales on Hudson's Bay to embark on an extraordinary journey. He and a band of Chipewyan Native Canadians were assigned by the Hudson's Bay Company to walk across the Barren Grounds to the Land of Little Sticks. He became the first European to paddle in the North American Arctic Ocean. Samuel Hearne is also credited with proving the myth of the Northwest Passage, the discovery of Great Slave Lake and the establishment of Cumberland House.