Kugluktuk

Hamlet in Kitikmeot Region, in the Canadian territory ofNunavut, on lowlands at the mouth of the Coppermine River, on Coronation Gulf on the Arctic Ocean, 140 km/85 mi north of the Arctic Circle and 560 km/350 mi north of Yellowknife; population (1996 est) 1,200. It is a fishing community; tourism is also important.

The Copper Inuit, so called for their metal ornaments, were encountered in the area by English Explorer Samuel Hearne's expedition in 1771; they and their forerunners have lived here seasonally or permanently for some 3,000 years. Hearne's Chipewyan (Dene) guides massacred an Inuit party in 1771 at Kuklok (formerly know as Bloody Falls), 16km/10 mi from the sea, where the river drops to the coastal plain.

The 845 km/525 mi Coppermine River empties here after winding generally north-northwest across the Canadian Shield from the north of the Great Slave Lake. Kuklok is now a territorial park.