By the 1930s, Chesterfield Inlet was a major centre in the Canadian Arctic. Attracted to the services, particularly medical services offered in Chesterfield Inlet, more Inuit spent longer periods of time in the developing settlement. Dr. L.D. Livingstone was the first resident doctor in the settlement, and by the mid 1930s the settlement boasted a three-storey hospital, which then and for many years after, was the largest building in the Canadian Arctic.
ABOVE Dr. Livingston, dressed for winter in a caribou parka - NWT Archives/Leslie Livingston N-1987-019:0187 RIghT the Mission brought in hens each summer - Courtesy Brian Lewis
12
A Journey Through Time
In Chesterfield Inlet in the 1930s, the Roman Catholic mission also provided much of its own food, and right up to the late 1960s, brought in several hundred hens each summer and pioneered a successful poultry operation long before anyone else had tried such a venture in the north. This was discontinued when aircraft began regular service to the settlement and the mission was no longer totally dependant on one ship per year to bring in supplies.
