Sachs Harbour is located on Banks Island at 71°59'N and 125°14'W, 523 km northeast of Inuvik and 1158 km northwest of Yellowknife.
Sachs Harbour was named after Mary Sachs, a ship in the Canadian Arctic Expedition of 1913. A permanent settlement was established in 1929 when three Inuit families moved there to trap. In 1953, the RCMP set up a detachment.