North Star Bay

North Star Bay
Thule Harbor; Wolstenholme Bay
North Star Bay
Location
LocationArctic (mouth of Wolstenholme Fjord)
Coordinates76°33′41″N 68°49′39″W / 76.56139°N 68.82750°W / 76.56139; -68.82750
Ocean/sea sourcesBaffin Bay
Basin countriesGreenland
IslandsSaunders Island and Wolstenholme Island
SettlementsNarsaarsuk

North Star Bay (Danish: North Star Bugt), also known as Thule Harbor and Wolstenholme Bay, is at the mouth of Wolstenholme Fjord in north-west Greenland. The Dundas Peninsula, terminating in the mesa-like Mount Dundas, is at the north-eastern end of the bay. Two large islands are off the bay, Saunders Island and Wolstenholme Island. Bylot Sound is the strait to the south, between the islands and the mainland.

The Inughuit settlements of Narsaarsuk and Pituffik were once on the shore of the bay. Knud Rasmussen established a trading post and mission called "Thule" at the north-eastern end in 1910. The United States started building defense facilities on the bay from 1943 and the Inughuit had to leave in 1953. The U.S. Pituffik Space Base is now the only inhabited place on the bay.