Pen Islands

The Pen Islands lie off the southwestern coast of Hudson Bay, northwest of the mouth of the Severn River. Behind them, low beach ridges and wetlands stretch along the shore, where woodland caribou come to calve. Caribou have long travelled through the wider coastal country, and Cree hunters pursued them near the Nelson and Hayes rivers to the west. The Hudson's Bay Company established York Factory on the Hayes in 1684, making the river mouth an important centre of the fur trade.