The town all started with a young man who had a vision. This man’s name was Eli Tingley. He was told about this land in the Masset Inlet by some friends who were headed for the land and he decided to travel with them. 16 people had made it to the future townsite and within a few months all had ditched the idea and planned on leaving. Eli had other plans and stayed. He built his own cabin in 1908 on the bank of what is now Rennie Creek. He then ran into another problem, he learned that Graham Coal and Steamship Company had a lease for the area. He battled for six years until he got the land. He named this new townsite Queenstown and many new townsfolk arrived to this promising land. 

The town had to be renamed after figuring out that a post office could not be built due to the fact that another town had a claim over the name. Shortly after Eli decided to name the town Port Clements after the M.P. at the time, Herb Clements who later gave the town its beautiful wharf.