What brought them back was gold – a treasure rich enough to drive people into the cold northern fringes YELLOWKNIFE HERITAGE MAP LEGEND GIANT MINE r5 of the continent. Though the presence of the metal Photo B YELLOWKNIFE BAY was first noted in Yellowknife Bay in 1897, by a HIKING TRAIL FLOATPLANE BASE prospector on his way to the Klondike, the area was F then too remote to create sustained interest. GIANT MINE ^2 PUBLIC BOAT LAUNCH HOSPITAL The mine is now closed (1948-2004) A BRIEF HISTORY OF YELLOWKNIFE By the 1930s, new transportation systems over water but some parts of the property will be and by air were established and the Yellowknife area maintained and put to good use when NDILO Yellowknife, and the adjacent river and bay on Great became more accessible. In 1933, Johnny Baker and VISITORS INFORMATION MUSEUMS the mining museum goes into This part of the Yellowknives Dene 1. Northern Frontiers Visitors Centre ^ 1. Prince of Wales Northern Slave Lake, derive their names from the knives once Herb Dixon made the first free gold discovery up the 2. City Hall Heritage Centre operation in the former recreation First Nation community was once 3. Library 2. Mining Museum (in hall. ! commonly referred to as Rainbow used by Dene of the area. The blades were fashioned Yellowknife River. The next year, the Burwash development) / Valley for the many small, brightly from naturally occurring copper gathered along the discovery was made across Yellowknife Bay. By the r DISPLAYS & MURALS 3. City Hall Mining Display painted houses that are now giving Coppermine River, near the Arctic coast. end of 1935, enough gold had been discovered to 1. Cultural Crossroads Exhibit 4. Airport Mining Displays 2. Miner’s Memorial 5. Giant Mine Boat Launch Display YELLOWKNIFE DUMP way to modern homes. The other part prompt serious mining development. The Con Mine A strange part of our heritage... of the community is across tha bay The people of the city’s two neighbouring became the first NWT gold producer with the ! DESIGNATED SITES 5. Bank of Toronto 1. Wildcat Café 6. Back Bay Cemetery maybe – but a truly valuable one! from Yellowknife in Dettah. communities of Dettah and Ndilo are the pouring of a brick in September 1938. The 2. Weaver and Devore 7. Fireweed Studio Yellowknifers have been proud BODE’S OLD FARM Yellowknives Dene First Nation. Their ancestors – Yellowknife we know today was born! 3. H.B.C. Warehouse 8. Mildred Hall Schoolhouse dump salvagers for many years. 4. Old C.P.A. Office 9. Post Office Gardening is still very popular Slavey, Dogrib, and Chipewyan speaking Dene – Many interesting and useful finds in Yellowknife. Extra long A village with many services had grown by 1942 and have come from the dump and have inhabited the region since time immemorial, daylight hours during the salvage materials have built many ! with known archaelogical evidence dating back several mines had achieved production status. summer make up for the short homes and cottages in the area. A thousands of years. Development was soon halted when the miners growing season. This was one The Rock local man writes a newspaper moved to other ventures considered more important of the many market gardeners Photo column based on these dump During the late 1700s, newcomers trickled in with to the war effort. But a new rush started when Giant in the 1940s. stories. ! the expanding fur trade. First came Metis families Mine struck gold in 1944. With no room for F THE ROCK connected with the trade, then came the trade expansion in crowded Old Town, a new town site in This was the heart of Old company explorers, beginning with Samuel Hearne the present day downtown core was surveyed in LONG LAKE Town and was the ! in 1770, Peter Pond in 1786, and Alexander 1945 – New Town. G.S.C. GOLD DISCOVERY commercial center of Mackenzie in1789. During these years, an outpost ! In 1935, members of the Yellowknife before 1945 when called Fort Providence was established near Wool In the summer of 1953, Yellowknife became a Geological Survey of Canada New Town was developed. Bay, south of present day Yellowknife. With the municipality and its first mayor was elected. In 1967, found gold at this spot, sparking Pilot’s Monument was LATHAM ISLAND reopening of this post and the help of the Dene Yellowknife was named capital of the Northwest WEST BAY FAULT a staking rush. The Prospector’s erected on top to honour the Named after early pilot people, the young John Franklin completed his Territories, and was later designated a city on January bush pilots of Yellowknife Gordon Latham, and now Trail at Fred Henne Territorial overland trip to the Arctic coast in 1820. Aboriginal 1st 1970. The gold mines have all closed, but the Park passes near the discovery and is a spectacular lookout. !5 one of Yellowknife’s oldest mining industry remains in our blood with vein. and most unique residential people continued to inhabit the area, eventually neighbourhoods. congregating on a point of land on Yellowknife Bay’s Yellowknife’s future now resting on the prosperous !6 BACK BAY east side – Dettah. Southerners did not come again diamond mines to the north. F for many years. r4 JACKFISH LAKE PEACE RIVER FLATS !4 !3 One of the original areas of ! ! settlement, it is named for several !1 original families who came from ! ; DESIGNATED HERITAGE SITES F the Peace River area. 2 Bristol Monument ! !1 !2 Photo 1 LAKEVIEW CEMETERY ! r Wildcat Cafe Weaver & Devore ! Yellowknife’s cemetery since NIVEN JOLLIFFE ISLAND BRISTOL MONUMENT Photo Photo 1946, victims of the Negus LAKE Dr. Fred Jolliffe of the Geological The Bristol Air Freighter was used bunkhouse fire of Christmas Eve F Survey of Canada oversaw a exclusively in the NWT. This very that year were some of the first ! massive geological survey of the plane made the first skied landing at buried here. region in 1935. Now grown over with the North Pole in 1967. It sports bush, the remnants of old log the original flying colours of its cabins and other uses can still be Wildcat Café The café is a seasonal favourite amongst residents and visitors. It was the Weaver & Devore An early mercantile and fur trading business, Harry Weaver and Bud owner and donator, aviation pioneer found, along with the occasional earliest in Yellowknife, built in 1937 by Willie Wylie and Smokey Stout. It closed in 1951, Devore opened this store in 1936. It is the longest surviving private business in the but through the efforts of a dedicated volunteer society the Wildcat Café was fixed up city. The current store is located across the street and still serves the needs of bush Max Ward. r2 itinerant camp. for the City and reopened in 1979. It gained national recognition as an important camps and residents. The original log cabin now houses a restaurant specialing in heritage resource when it was recreated in Canada’s Museum of Civilization. local fish. !1 FRAME WOODYARD !3 !4 F 1 This area was the home of the early LAKE ^ WEST BAY FAULT !3 woodcutting businesses. Now, old log and !2 ! timber shacks share lots next to modern homes. HBC Warehouse Old CPA Office 9 Nestled in the middle is the Einer Broten Photo Photo r3 ! Historical Area – a living preservation of the !7 traditional shack lifestyle. !8 WEST BAY FAULT NEW TOWN The West Bay fault, a major geological HBC Warehouse With posts throughout the NWT and across Canada, for many years Old CPA Office This building celebrates the role of the floatplane companies and their the Hudson’s Bay Company held a virtual monopoly on fur trading and general adventurous pilots. It was built in 1946 and used as office and staff housing for many Yellowknife grew rapidly with the formation in Yellowknife, had no significance merchandise. This building was used as a store from 1945 to 1960, and then as a years by various charter companies, including Canadian Pacific Airlines. At one time in warehouse until the HBC left Yellowknife in 1990. the 1990s, it housed Yellowknife’s first brewing enterprise and had a long bar end of World War II -- so fast that until 1945 when geologist Neil Campbell fashioned from an aircraft wing. town planners surveyed an entire investigated the relationship between local gold MOSHER ISLAND new town site in 1945. New Town deposits. His research showed that the rich This island sits as a reminder of is now downtown and the Giant Mine deposit faulted underneath Con Murdoch Moser’s unwise decision !5 !6 commercial center of the city. Mine, thus extending Con’s life. to let his original gold claims lapse. Tom Payne found rich Bank of Toronto Back Bay Cemetery RANGE LAKE gold and re-staked them in 1936, Photo Photo ! making a huge fortune in his sale to Con Mine. F F Bank of Toronto Originally a small residence built on the Rock in 1939, the log cabin Back Bay Cemetery Also known as the Pioneer Graveyard, this is Yellowknife’s original became the smallest branch of the Bank of Toronto in 1946. Allan Lambert was the bank cemetery. The first person buried here was Art McIntyre, a young man who committed manager, and later rose through the ranks to become President and CEO of TD Bank. It is suicide because of his fear of working underground at Con Mine. ! now once again used as a small home. TIN CAN HILL Named because of an early trash dump from Con Mine operations, !7 !8 a road was plowed up Tin Can Hill in the 1940s to connect Fireweed Studio Yellowknife with the mines via School Draw. The old road is now Photo an easy and popular hiking trail.

BEVAN’S DAIRY FARM B Fireweed Studio This quaint little log structure was an early storage building for Mildred Hall Schoolhouse The original Yellowknife school is one of the more notable Located near where the Multiplex explosives at Giant Mine. It was moved to this site in 1974 and was the City’s first heritage buildings. Built in 1937 by a mining company, it was rented to the local Trustee tourist center. The building reflects the style of many old mining camps throughout Board and used as a schoolhouse for a short period before World War II. Mildred Hall was Arena now sits, this farm did not CON MINE the NWT. the teacher, whose name is also commemorated on the modern elementary school. last long as the cows couldn’t Con Mine was the first NWT gold mine, producing from stand the cold or the toxic mine B 1938-2003, with its Robertson headframe a prominent !9 effluent. ! landmark visible for miles. It was home to the first hospital and after closing has remained home to many Yellowknife Post Office On April 30, 1956, the current Post Office was opened as Yellowknife expanded from Old Town to New Town. The building was originally residents. Due to modern mine reclamation NEGUS MINE configured to include the central post office on the main floor with federal government offices and a courtroom on the second floor. In the early years the Post Office connected requirements though, its many other buildings Little remains of the Negus Mine on the Yellowknife to the outside world, serving townspeople, government and the mining industry, sending and receiving letters and mail order goods. It has been the centre of central to Yellowknife heritage, had to be destroyed. south side of Yellowknife. It produced the downtown community life since New Town began. from 1939-1952 and a community called Negusville was established KAM LAKE on Yellowknife Bay. DISCOVERY MINE 1950-1969 GIAUQUE LAKE ROCKY LAKE B THE MEN BEHIND THE NAMES: Discovery Mine Miners Frame Lake Photo GORDON Aboriginal Family Photo Bill Frame was an early miner and part owner of the Photo VIKING DEPOSIT local taxi and bus franchise. LAKE Developed 1946-1947B DISCOVERY MINE A community between 1950 and 1969, Duncan Lake Discovery only existed because of the Named after an RCAF pilot who flew the first mapping gold mine beneath it. Many surveys of the Yellowknife area. Yellowknifers grew up here and a highlight of their childhood was Jennejohn Lake heading to the ‘big city’ to shop. Norman Jennejohn was a geologist working in the Though it stood abandoned like a MCDONALD Yellowknife area in 1935, when free-gold was ghost town until 2005, it was then discovered on the west side of the Bay. cleared of all the old works and ! LAKE community buildings as part of Beaulieu River federal mine clean-up activities. THE MINERS STARTED Francois King Beaulieu was a Metis fur trader who had a trapline on the river in the 1930s. ARSENAULT’S FIND YELLOWKNIFE Spud Arsenault was an old- A MODERN CITY Baker Creek DUNCAN LAKE time prospector who in 1946 RIVER made a gold strike at the Tower Ferry The Yellowknife region has been home to many Johnny Baker was the prospector who discovered Photo Photo gold at Giant Mine in 1935. north end of McDonald Lake. mines. This map does not include dozens of He sold the claims for other mines that are located off the borders. Most $100,000 and, in a widely were gold mines, but others, like the uranium MON MINE publicized event, was mine at Rayrock or tungsten mining at Outpost 1992-1997 B 1933 GOLD DISCOVERY presented the amount in Island, also led to the quick growth of After a month-long river trip GARSKIE’S MINE dollar bills at a Toronto hotel. in 1933, Johnny Baker and Yellowknife into the biggest community in the Louis Garskie liked to mine Herb Dixon landed at Quyta gold. From 1947-1972, NWT. Lake and discovered the first Garskie recovered many evidence of gold in the ounces of gold from this site The three local gold mines - Con, Giant and ! Yellowknife region. Negus – were at the core of the city’s growth. using his crude crushing and grinding contraptions. Mining jobs attracted men and families, bringing QUYTA LAKE He would often showcase the PENSIVE LAKES with them business and commerce, which in turn fruits of his labour around B led to the construction of a modern settlement. It Bluefish Hydro Yellowknife in Coke bottles. proved to the federal government that Photo (Old Town?) Aerial Yellowknife was a community to invest in and Photo numerous services followed, sponsored heavily by BLUEFISH HYDRO the mines. By 1967, when it was time to choose a The Bluefish Hydro dam was territorial capital, Yellowknife prevailed over the BLUEFISH LAKE MACKENZIE HIGHWAY built by Con Mine in 1940 to original location, Fort Smith, and all other supply power to the mine and THOMPSON-LUNDMARK MINE Originally all traffic into suggestions. the community. The advent of 1941-1943 / 1947-1949 Yellowknife was by airplane ! CAMERON RIVER hydroelectric power was a or boat. The 1960 highway Yellowknife honours its gold mines, and pays milestone in turning YELLOWKNIFE RIVER helped the town grow and B respect to the legacy its miners have provided for us. Yellowknife from a frontier PROSPEROUS LAKE today it has been vastly Traditionally, the river known as Weledeh ! settlement to a town. to the Yellowknives provided passageway PRELUDE improved from its earlier days HIDDEN as a dangerous, winding and into the barrenland hunting grounds. LAKE narrow dirt road. Sir John Franklin traveled the river in LAKE CRESTAURUM DEPOSITB 1820-21 with his guide, Akaitcho, during Winter Road Developed 1946 their attempt to reach the Arctic Ocean. Photo MACKENZIE HIGHWAY INGRAHAM TRAIL B ! ! HIDDEN LAKE MINE TROUT ROCK 1968 WINTER ROADS Trout Rock was a native Winter roads have been one of the Yellowknife Heritage INGRAHAM TRAIL most important transportation methods settlement for many decades. B Logo It thrived when the fish plant An element of John in the NWT. Cat trains originally did at Ptarmigan Point was YELLOWKNIFE PTARMIGAN MINE Defienbaker’s “Road to REID LAKE the work, but now truck convoys operating in the 1950s-1960s. 1941-1942 / 1987-1997 Resources” program, the supply the camps and communities. There is now a fishing lodge Ingraham Trail stopped far short on the site. B of its goal to extend around CITY OF YELLOWKNIFE HERITAGE MAP MASON LAKE Great Slave Lake. It was named ! for Vic Ingraham, Yellowknife’s JENNEJOHN LAKE HERITAGE COMMITTEE BURWASH MINE DETTAH early hotel man, and is now the The City of Yellowknife Heritage Committee was Burwash was the first access road to cottage country established in 1985 and is authorized and mandated underground gold mine at and the ice roads serving the pursuant to By-laws 4404 and 4540. The committee is Yellowknife. Johnny Baker diamond mines. BEAULIEU RIVER comprised of nine volunteers who are appointed by and Hugh Muir discovered Samuel Hearne passed down City Council based on an application process. Two the showing in 1934. This the Beaulieu on his return from discovery was the catalyst Councillors and the Mayor also sit on the Committee. OLD FORT PROVIDENCE the Coppermine River in 1772. that led to the birth of Ruins of cabins and mine With a small budget, funding proposals and / Not to be confused with the Yellowknife. workings have been left by community of Fort Providence donations, the Committee spearheads many projects trappers and prospectors who, on the Mackenzie River, this old and supports those of other organizations and like Hearne before them, were fort was established in 1786, individuals, such as the NWT Mining Heritage ! driven by the pursuit of GREAT SLAVE LAKE one of the first trading posts on Society and Spirit YK. Committee spearheaded valuable minerals and furs. Great Slave Lake. It was projects range from designated site recommendations, Associated Airways abandoned in 1823 and the Plane with Pilot historical research, informative publications, buildings have long since installation of plaques, collection of art works, and decayed, leaving only stone Photo the holding of special events annually as part of fireplaces. Heritage Week. COMMITTEE MANDATE • Recommend sites for heritage designation by Council • Maintain an inventory of heritage sites and structures • Preserve and promote Yellowknife heritage ; OTHER NOTABLE BUILDINGS OF YELLOWKNIFE • Provide advice to Council on developments affecting heritage. OLD NEW COMMITTEE MISSION To help conserve, protect and celebrate Yellowknife Gold Range Hotel Jock McNiven’s House Old Mine Rescue Station RCMP Station Chippy’s Cabin heritage – including natural, social, economic and cultural Photo Photo Photo Photo Photo heritage – for the benefit of present and future residents. FOR MORE INFORMATION There are several books about Yellowknife history and the Heritage Committee has compiled inventory reports on the older buildings and neighbourhoods. These works GOLD RANGE HOTEL JOCK MCNIVEN’S HOUSE OLD MINE RESCUE STATION RCMP STATION CHIPPY’S CABIN are available at Yellowknife City Hall. The Committee (5010 50th Street) (4403 School Draw Avenue) (4903 50th Street) (5019 51st Street ) (4720 Anderson-Thomson Boulevard) also publishes walking tour guides of both New Town Mine Fisher and Old Town. These guides are available at the The Gold Range Hotel and Bar opened in 1958. This house was originally located at the Negus Mine Mine rescue was an important part of life in The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have always The logs from this 1930s era cabin were cut up the Photo Photo Northern Frontier Visitors Centre as well as Yellowknife Founder Jack Glick came north to build a rooming as home to manager Jock McNiven. He was an early Yellowknife, and this station went into operation been an important presence in Yellowknife. This Yellowknife River. In the early years the region was City Hall. The Committee has information pages, house for war veterans and the hotel evolved from community leader and became the first mayor in in 1950 to serve the needs of local gold mines. Station went into operation in 1947. It was used full of good timber, but eventually it was all cut including its monthly minutes, posted on the City this original business. The “Strange Range” has 1953. The house was later bought by prospector Now, the building has been remodeled into a youth by the RCMP until 1970, and is now occupied down and logs had to be brought in from the Slave website at www.yellowknife.ca. always been and remains infamously at the center of Jack Stevens and moved to its present location. centre, proving that obsolete buildings can again by a day care centre. River area. The cabin is a good example of early Yellowknife’s wilder side. have purpose. housing in Yellowknife. This map was created by Ryan Silke, James Lawrance and Dave Jones for the committee. Produced by the City of Yellowknife. Designed by Steve Freake. © 2006, 2010 City of Yellowknife. Photos courtesy of NWT Archives, Ryan Silke and Steve Freake.