Before Fort Conger was established, its Discovery Harbour was used as a wintering site by the crew of HMS Discovery, led by George Nares, during the British Arctic Expedition of 1875. Though Nares left behind provisions at Fort Conger, most of those supplies were unfound when Fort Conger was established as a research base in 1881 during the Lady Franklin Bay Expedition, led by U.S. Army First Lieutenant Adolphus Greely. The fort was named by Greely after U.S. Senator Omar D. Conger, who had supported the expedition. Twenty-five men, including officers, enlisted, and Inuit, lived and conducted research at Fort Conger over the next two years. During his 1899 expedition to reach the geographic North Pole, Robert Peary reached Fort Conger, only to have several toes snap off at the first joint because of frostbite. Bedridden for weeks while recuperating, Peary wrote on a wall, Inveniam viam aut faciam, the words Hannibal had allegedly said before crossing the Alps. Later they became an inscription on the monument over Peary's grave at Arlington National Cemetery. Two additional Peary expedition parties returned to Fort Conger in 1905 and 1908. Other explorers used Fort Conger as a base from 1915 through 1935. In 1937, the MacGregor Arctic Expedition attempted to reoccupy Fort Conger.
Construction
The original fort was built as a three-room building, long, wide, and high. Lean-tos on either side of the building housed supplies. The double-wall construction of the main building consisted of long, wooden boards, covered with tar paper. This type of construction was found to be unsuitable for the Arctic as it was difficult to keep the building warm. Peary found Fort Conger to be "grotesque in its utter unfitness and unsuitableness for polar winter quarters" and eventually tore down the original building. Re-using the wood, he built several smaller, adjoining buildings, some of which still stand and are classified as Federal Heritage Buildings.
Research
As a scientific station, Fort Conger has been the site of many research projects from the early "Pendulum Observations", to "Research on the microbes attacking the historic woods at Fort Conger and the Peary huts on Ellesmere Island" conducted by the University of Minnesota. Unexpected large quantities of arsenic have been discovered at Fort Conger in recent years, its presence most likely attributable to it being delivered here for sample preservation. In 2013, a comprehensive 17-page report on the history of Fort Conger was published in the journal, Arctic.
