Boothia Peninsula

Boothia Peninsula, peninsula, central Nunavut Territory, in Kitikmeot Region. The peninsula is bordered on the east by the Gulf of Boothia and on the west by James Ross Strait and Franklin Strait and is joined to the mainland by the Isthmus of Boothia in the south. The barren, rocky peninsula, which has an area of 32,300 sq km (12,500 sq mi), contains the northernmost point of the North American mainland (latitude 72° North). The northern magnetic pole was formerly located on its western coast. Inuit make up most of the peninsula's few inhabitants; Spence Bay, in the south, is the chief settlement. The first European to visit (1829) the peninsula was Sir John Ross, who named it for his patron, the British distiller Sir Felix Booth.