Nelson Head is a Canadian Arctic

Northern Canada

Northern Canada, colloquially the North, is the vast northernmost region of Canada variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut...

 hypsographic cape

Headland

A headland is a point of land, usually high and often with a sheer drop, that extends out into a body of water.Headland can also refer to:*Headlands and bays*headLand, an Australian television series...

 in the Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

. The most southerly point of Banks Island

Banks Island

One of the larger members of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, Banks Island is situated in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is separated from Victoria Island to its east by the Prince of Wales Strait and from the mainland by Amundsen Gulf to its south. The Beaufort Sea lies...

, it protrudes into the Amundsen Gulf

Amundsen Gulf

Amundsen Gulf is a gulf located in Canadian Northwest Territories, between Banks Island and Victoria Island and the mainland . It is approximately in length and about across where it meets the Beaufort Sea....

.

It is the ancestral home of Kangiryuarmiut

Kangiryuarmiut

The Kangiryuarmiut were a Copper Inuit subgroup. They were located on Victoria Island in the areas of Prince Albert Sound, Cape Baring, and central Victoria island. They were also found around Nelson Head on Banks Island. Kangiryuarmiut subsisted on bear. They were the only Copper Inuit who...

, a Copper Inuit

Copper Inuit

Copper Inuit are a Canadian Inuit group who live north of the tree line, in Nunavut's Kitikmeot Region and the Northwest Territories's Inuvik Region. Most historically lived in the area around Coronation Gulf, on Victoria Island, and southern Banks Island.Their western boundary was Wise Point,...

 subgroup.

Naming

The cape was named Nelson's Head by Captain Robert McClure

Robert McClure

Sir Robert John Le Mesurier McClure was an Irish explorer of the Arctic.In 1854, he was the first to transit the Northwest Passage , as well as the first to circumnavigate the Americas.-Early life and career:He was born at Wexford, in Ireland, the posthumous son of one of Abercrombie's captains,...

 on September 7, 1850 during his western search

McClure Arctic Expedition

The McClure Arctic Expedition of 1850, among numerous British search efforts to determine the fate of the Franklin's lost expedition, is distinguished as the voyage during which Robert McClure became the first person to confirm and transit the Northwest Passage by a combination of sea travel and...

 for Franklin's lost expedition

Franklin's lost expedition

Franklin's lost expedition was a doomed British voyage of Arctic exploration led by Captain Sir John Franklin that departed England in 1845. A Royal Navy officer and experienced explorer, Franklin had served on three previous Arctic expeditions, the latter two as commanding officer...

 in honor of Lord Nelson, whose profile may have been suggested by the 'strikingly grand and imposing' features of the cape. Nelson had not been previously honored by Arctic explorers.

Appearance

Described by Alexander Armstrong, ship's surgeon aboard the HMS Investigator

HMS Investigator (1848)

HMS Investigator was a merchant ship purchased in 1848 to search for Sir John Franklin's lost expedition. She made two voyages to the Arctic and had to be abandoned in 1853 after becoming trapped in the ice. Her wreckage was found in July 2010 on Banks Island, in the Beaufort Sea...

, the cape reaches over 1000 feet almost vertically from the water's edge:

'It is of limestone formation, the lower third of dark brown stratification, above which is assumed a lighter colour of reddish yellow, such as a ferruginous coating might impart. This was surmounted by a dark grey columnar formation, much resembling irregularly formed basaltic columns, with joints or fissures similar to what is usually observed in that formation; the whole capped by a covering of soil.