The station was built in 1932 by John Giæver's expedition, about 15 km (9.3 mi) northeast of the mouth of Ardencaple Fjord. It was named "Jónsbú" after Norwegian journalist John Schjelderup Giæver (1901–1970), who lived as a hunter and trapper in East Greenland from 1929 to 1934. The station had also been known as "Norsk Petersbugt Station".[4]
The original station was burnt down in August 1943 during World War II in an attack by Greenland Patrol ship USCGC Northland. The ship destroyed the station in order to prevent its facilities from being used by the military of the Third Reich.[4]
In 1948, well after the end of the war, the new Jónsbú Station was built in a new location south of Peters Bay, on the other side of Ardencaple Fjord by the mouth of Kildedal at 75°14.8′N20°52.6′W / 75.2467°N 20.8767°W / 75.2467; -20.8767. In order to differentiate the two huts, the ruin of the old station is also known as "Gamle Jonsbu" (Old Jonsbu) —although the name "Jónsbú Station" is still officially applied to it— and the new one as "Ny Jonsbu".
Bibliography
Spencer Apollonio, Lands That Hold One Spellbound: A Story of East Greenland, 2008
Frode Skarstein, “A cursed affair”—how a Norwegian expedition to Greenland became the USA’s first maritime capture in World War II. Norwegian Polar Institute,
