King William Island (; previously: King William Land; ) is an island in the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut, which is part of the Arctic Archipelago. In area it is between and making it the 61st-largest island in the world and Canada's 15th-largest island. Its population, as of the 2021 census, was 1,349, all of whom live in the island's only community, Gjoa Haven. While searching for the Northwest Passage, a number of polar explorers visited, or spent their winters on, King William Island. Geography The island is separated from the Boothia Peninsula by the James Ross Strait to the northeast, and the Rae Strait to the east. To the west is the Victoria Strait and beyond it Victoria Island. Within the Simpson Strait, to the south of the island, is Todd Island, and beyond it, further to the south, is the Adelaide Peninsula. Queen Maud Gulf lies to the southwest. Some places on the coast are: (counter clockwise from the northern tip) Cape Felix, Victory Point and Gore Point at the mouth of Collinson Inlet, Point Le Vesconte, Erebus Bay, Cape Crozier, (south side) Terror Bay, Irving Islands, Washington Bay, Cape Herschel, Gladman Point, entrance to Simpson Strait, Todd Islets, (east side) Gjoa Haven, Matheson Peninsula, Latrobe Bay, Cape Norton at mouth of Peel Inlet, Matty Island, Tennent Islands, Clarence Islands, Cape Felix. Wildlife The island is known for its large populations of Barren-ground caribou, which summer there before migrating in the autumn by walking south over the sea ice. Role in Arctic exploration Sir James Clark Ross The island was long occupied by Inuit, who had a culture adapted to the extreme environment. In 1830, the British explorer James Clark Ross named it "King William Land" for King William IV the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland; Ross thought at the time that it was a peninsula. Some sources credit his uncle, John Ross with naming the land. In 1834, George Back, another Arctic explorer, viewed its south shore from Chantrey Inlet and eventually recognised it as an island. Sir John Franklin Sir John Franklin, another British explorer, made an Arctic expedition looking for the Northwest Passage about a decade later; his two ships became stranded in 1846 when frozen in the sea ice northwest of the island. After abandoning the two ships, most of the crew died from exposure and starvation as they