IOCC History - Pre-1900

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Louis Babel O.M.I. was a Swiss oblate and Jesuit missionary who emigrated from Switzerland to Canada. In 1854, while visiting Sept-Iles, Quebec, he met Charles R. Arnaud another oblate missionary. For the next sixty years they would carry out missionary work together. While Arnaud ministered to the needs of the Native Americans, Babel was more interested in geology. During an expedition in 1866, Babel recorded that the area around Lake Winokapau was abundant in minerals. During his travels, he was the first man to seriously and scientifically map and describe the interior of Labrador.

Using Babel's diaries and maps, Albert Peter Low was the next explorer to do any significant surveying of the geological aspect of the Labrador Peninsula. Working for the Canadian Geological Survey between 1892 and 1895/96, he covered and mapped 12,800 square kilometers (4942 sq. miles) of this treacherous and unexplored land. This expedition was conducted by foot, canoe, dogsled and snowshoes. Low discovered vast deposits of iron ore and published a report which became the basis for later exploration and development of the iron ore deposits located in Labrador West.