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67-576: Formed by meltwater after the end of the Wisconsin glaciation 20,000 years ago, Frame has been an important part of Yellowknife's history. The Dene in the area used it as a fishing spot before European settlement. In the early years of the city's growth, gold mines nearby dumped tailings in it and sometimes sewage. Later, when the city's New Town, now its downtown section, was surveyed and developed nearby, Frame offered accessible swimming and boating opportunities. However, storm sewers diverted much of

134-506: A conservation report prepared for the city named Frame Lake its top priority and suggested enacting special nature-preservation zoning to protect it. During the following decade, residents began to rediscover Frame Lake. "As a city, we've largely disengaged from this little jewel in our midst", wrote Matthew Mallon in YK_Edge , a local weekly newspaper. Newer residents, he said, were incredulous at his recollections of swimming and sailing on

201-497: A factor in the lake's decline, it is not the only one. Instead, the change in species around 1990 pointed to a change in littoral zone microhabitat , a loss of macrophytes and mosses , as bearing the primary responsibility for tipping the lake to its present eutrophic state. However, the lack of data on ice cover since 1992 and her inability to determine the lake's status prior to the establishment of Yellowknife qualified that conclusion. "Alternatively", she wrote, "Frame Lake may be

268-409: A lower portion of the moraine. Multiple outlets could form through low spots too until one would become dominant after erosion lowered both the outlet and lake surface. Ice melt and rainfall carried large quantities of clay , sand , and gravel from the ice mass. Clays could be moved long distances by moving water, while sand and gravel could not. Thus, sand and gravel landforms developed along

335-743: A museum for the Northwest Territories in the early 1950s and after several years of planning, and three years of construction, the 'Museum of the North' opened in July 1963 in downtown Yellowknife. It was operated by volunteers with the Yellowknife Museum Society until 1970 when care of its artifacts was transferred to the Government of the Northwest Territories. Planning for a larger institution began due to concern over

402-448: A number of different sources, such as Frame. Her inquiry was a paleolimnological one, focusing on the algae species present in the lake at various times in the recent past. She took core samples of the sediment down to 17 centimetres (6.7 in) and dated them by the lead-210 levels. Once their age was established, she looked at the diatom remains, since the species of algae in the water can reflect environmental changes, and counted

469-449: A partially paved pathway 5.5 kilometres (3.4 mi) in length, closely follows the shoreline past an extensive area of forest. Just south of McNiven Beach is a recreational facility with an arena and pool, again close to the water's edge. At the south end, another residential neighborhood comes near the lake, after which a rocky area buffers Stanton Regional Hospital. Commercial strip development along Old Airport Road also comes close, and

536-498: A relatively pure lake even as the area was settled and modern development impinged on it. The closure of its only outlet around 1970, however, led swiftly to its decline and eutrophication . By the end of the 20th century it could no longer support fish and was not being used for primary recreational purposes. Attempts to revive it started in the 2010s. Like many of the lakes in the Northwest Territories (NWT), Frame

603-552: A subarctic anomaly and was always high in nutrients". In 2015 the Carleton team was able to examine the sediments. They found that the period between the late 1940s and 1970 added a half-meter (20 in) of sediment to the bottom of the lake, the most of any lake in the region. Above it, the 10 centimetres (3.9 in) of sediment postdating the causeway was "black, sulfurous smelling and characterized by very high levels of metals, particularly arsenic ". These are consistent with

670-473: A whole. The striations made by the ice field in moving over the bedrock show that it moved principally to the west through the passes of the coast range. Whenever the ice sheet melted from the north at a moraine , water would begin to pond in the divide between a moraine and the ice front. The ice would act as a dam as water could not drain through the ice sheet, which in the Wisconsin period covered most of

737-419: Is gently undulating, with some of the small hills nearby cresting as high as 207 metres (679 ft) and one of the islands rising to 197 metres (646 ft). Two unnamed streams drain into the lake south of the peninsula on the western side. The northerly of the two rises from drainage ditches surrounding the runways at Yellowknife Airport 1.6 kilometres (1.0 mi) to the west, draining Robinson's Pond on

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804-491: Is glacial in origin. During the Wisconsin Glaciation , the last ice age , glaciers covered almost all of today's Western Canada . As they retreated about 20,000 years ago, they left large lakes of meltwater behind. One, known today as Lake McConnell , covered almost all of the western NWT as well as adjacent regions of what is now Alberta and Saskatchewan . By 8,000 years ago, it had drained and evaporated to

871-762: Is the Government of the Northwest Territories ' museum and archives. Located in Yellowknife , Northwest Territories , Canada, the PWNHC acquires and manages objects and archival materials that represent the cultures and history of the Northwest Territories (NWT), plays a primary role in documenting and providing information about the cultures and history of the NWT, and provides a professional museum, archives and cultural resource management services to partner organizations. A group of history-minded Yellowknifers first envisioned

938-576: The Bering Strait is believed to have allowed human occupation of this area which provided potential access for some of the first humans to move between North America and Siberia in Asia (see Settlement of the Americas ). Other human migration routes also opened during interglacial periods in both Europe and Asia. North American flora and fauna species were distributed quite differently during

1005-553: The Canadian Forces Northern Area Headquarters Yellowknife are situated along the south side of the arm, their associated lawns coming almost to the edge of the lake. South of City Hall along the lake shore is Somba K'e Park, open space with the only totally developed portion of shoreline. Beyond it, the taiga and bedrock buffer the lake from the city, except for the dead end of residential Matonabee Road. The Frame Lake Trail,

1072-924: The Late Wisconsin in North America. This glaciation radically altered the geography north of the Ohio River , creating the Great Lakes . At the height of the Wisconsin Episode glaciation, the ice sheet covered most of Canada , the Upper Midwest , and New England , as well as parts of Idaho , Montana , and Washington . On Kelleys Island in Lake Erie , northern New Jersey and in New York City 's Central Park ,

1139-629: The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre and Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly Building . The two are connected via paths and driveways through the intervening taiga and bedrock. A causeway carries the Frame Lake Trail across the tip of the arm, where the Northern Frontier Visitor Centre overlooks the lake. Formed by the retreat of the glaciers at the end of the last Ice Age, Frame Lake remained

1206-630: The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre , the territorial museum, followed nearby four years later. Sometime later that decade, the number of swimmers at McNiven Beach declined sufficiently for the city to remove the facilities there, as the beach itself began to grow over with grass. Residents were still swimming and boating in the lake in the early 1980s, but in smaller numbers. Some were scared off by reports of leeches that had in one instance supposedly covered an entire child. A local journalist recalled in 2015 how he had had to watch his step to avoid deep, malodorous deposits while catching tadpoles in

1273-470: The San Andreas Fault in the U.S. state of California . It divides the basalt from an area of lighter granite and granodiorite between the lake and the hospital. There are also visible signs of the lake's glacial origins. Just south of Somba K'e Park on the east shore, the rock has striations and scour marks in the northeast-to-southwest direction of the glaciers' advance. The fine sand on

1340-757: The Waterman Hills researchers found that Juniperus osteosperma and Pinus monophylla were early to mid-Holocene dominant trees, while Monardella arizonica has been a continuously present understory plant. Celtis reticulata is an example of a plant present in the early Holocene following Wisconsin glacial retreat, a species no longer present at the Waterman Mountains site. Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre The Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre (PWNHC) ( Centre du patrimoine septentrional Prince-de-Galles in French)

1407-472: The bedrock , with the largest forming the elevated area at the lake's southeast corner. Quartz intrusions are visible in some areas. Two local faults run across the south end of the lake. The stream from Robinson's Pond runs along the Pud Fault, which continues across the lakebed to McNiven Beach. At the south end is the larger Kam Fault, which when it was active had the same potential for earthquakes as

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1474-692: The grooves left in rock by these glaciers can be easily observed. In southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta a suture zone between the Laurentide and Cordilleran ice sheets formed the Cypress Hills , North America's northernmost point that remained south of the continental ice sheets. During much of the glaciation, sea level was low enough to permit land animals, including humans , to occupy Beringia (the Bering Land Bridge ) and move between North America and Siberia . As

1541-457: The runoff that fed it. Later development blocked the lake's only outflow, leaving it endorheic and complicating the problems caused by earlier pollution . By the early 1970s it no longer supported any fish; within two decades residents had stopped swimming or boating it out of fear of leeches . Subsequent studies have shown that the lake completely eutrophied sometime in the mid-1990s. They have not, however, been able to determine whether that

1608-407: The water column rose, nurturing aquatic plants during the summertime. In the winter, however, when the lake froze over and snow cover blocked much of the limited sunlight available, those same plants died off for lack of ability to photosynthesize . The decomposed plant matter began accumulating on the lake floor, steadily deoxygenating its waters. In a 1973 limnological study of seven lakes in

1675-743: The Canadian Territory of Keewatin . The ice moved south some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) into Kansas and Missouri. To the west, it reached 1,000 miles (1,600 km) to the foothills of the Rocky Mountains . The Cordilleran Ice Sheet has left remnants throughout the Northern Rocky Mountains . Unlike the other two ice sheets, this one is mountain based covering British Columbia and reaching into northern Washington State and Montana . The Cordilleran Ice Sheet has more of an Alpine style of many glaciers merged into

1742-483: The Wisconsin era, due to altered temperatures, surface water distribution, and in some cases coverage of earth surface by glaciers. A number of scientific studies have been conducted to determine species distribution, particularly during the Late Wisconsin and early to mid-Holocene. An example of findings is from the investigation of flora species using pollen core samples in present-day northern Arizona. Here in

1809-557: The Yellowknife area, including Frame, for a possible experimental fishery, scientists from the Fisheries Research Board noted that Frame was the only one in which they were unable to catch any fish for study. Over the preceding winter, they also observed that the lake had "become rapidly anoxic ". As the lake declined, development came closer. Yellowknife built its current city hall by the lake edge in 1975, and

1876-427: The Yellowknife area. Running through the central portion from north northeast, under the heritage centre and Legislative Assembly building, to south southwest is a narrow belt of dacite flanked by two gabbro sills (one of which forms the largest island), with some more dacite under the visitor's centre and the southern of the two points of the western peninsula. Small diabase dykes run through various portions of

1943-415: The accumulated rotted organic matter on the lake bed that currently renders it anoxic when the lake is frozen over in the winter. Frame Lake is irregularly shaped, with a northern section and a southern section along a north-northeast to south-southwest axis approximately 1.4 kilometres (0.87 mi) long, connected by a narrower central passage midway along its length where a wide peninsula extends from

2010-470: The area triggered the establishment of Yellowknife as a permanent settlement. While at the time development was concentrated on the peninsula extending into Great Slave Lake 's Yellowknife Bay, an area known today as Old Town, later analysis of lake sediments lends some support to accounts from that time of Frame Lake being used for the disposal of tailings and sewage from outlying mines. The lake took its name from Bill Frame, an early miner who owned part of

2077-443: The city's bus and taxi franchise. Yellowknife's growth was briefly interrupted by World War II , but when it resumed afterwards, the higher ground closer to the lake was chosen for expansion. The area just east of the lake became New Town, today the city's downtown. McNiven Beach, named after the city's first mayor, was developed with facilities for swimming; sometimes floatplanes landed nearby as well. Residents also went boating on

Frame Lake - Misplaced Pages Continue

2144-405: The city, found the lake abundant with pike , suckers and whitefish . While they did not settle on its shores, they established a fishing camp there. The descendants of European settlers began coming to the area of the lake in the early 20th century, first using it as a staging area for bush pilots flying to mining camps and settlements further north. In the mid-1930s, abundant gold deposits in

2211-445: The degradation of the lake on an annual basis to form a basis for policy recommendations to revitalize the lake. Currently researchers believe that either dredging rotten sediments off the lake bottom or aeration would best restore the water quality of the lake's early years. The lake is mostly underlain by a mix of volcanic and plutonic igneous rock . Most of it is the same Archean basalt greenstone belt that predominates in

2278-682: The divide", they observed. Benthos species in Frame were more similar to the other lakes. Frame shared with the other lakes a high mollusk population, predominantly in the Sphaeriidae and Valvatidae families . Lymnaeidae were unique to it, however. Insect populations around the lake are dominated by non-biting midges , especially the Chironominae and Tanypodinae subfamilies. Healey and Woodall also found significant populations of mayflies , damselflies , and water boatmen in

2345-443: The early 1970s the lake's decline had been noted. A later study by the earth science department at Carleton University concluded that the 1970 construction of the causeway across the end of the lake's eastern arm was the "tipping point" for Frame Lake. It cut off the stream between it and Niven Lake to the north, the only outlet the lake had had during human habitation of the area. With the lack of water throughput, nutrient levels in

2412-469: The early 1970s, looked at its water. The others, in the mid-2010s, examined the sediments to determine how the lake had reached the point it had by then. In 1971, just after what a later study would identify as the point when the lake's eutrophication began in earnest, M.C. Healey and W.L. Woodall, two researchers from the Fisheries Research Board of Canada , considered Frame in a limnological study of seven lakes in and around Yellowknife that their agency

2479-508: The glacial deposits were eroded and weathered. This first Wisconsin period erased all the Illinoian glacial topography that its glaciers extended over. The Late Wisconsin ice sheet extended more towards the west than the earlier movements. This may have been due to changes in the accumulation center of the ice sheet, topographic changes introduced by the Early phase or by pressure changes in

2546-427: The glacier when it melts back is called the ground moraine or till plain . Till is highly permeable and creates a large ground reserve for water. This formation is highly desirable for human economic development as a source of water. Prehistoric human migration was likely greatly influenced by this last glacial period, as during much of the Wisconsin era, the formation of a land bridge known as Beringia across

2613-589: The glaciers retreated, glacial lakes were breached in great glacial lake outburst floods such as the Kankakee Torrent , which reshaped the landscape south of modern Chicago as far as the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers. Two related movements have been termed Wisconsin: Early Wisconsin and Late Wisconsin. The Early Wisconsin was the bigger of the two and extended farther west and south. It retreated an unknown distance before halting. During this period of quiet,

2680-480: The ice mass in the north. The Labrador Ice Sheet centered east of Hudson Bay. Expanding towards the southwest, it reached into the eastern edge of Manitoba and across the Great Lakes to the Ohio River , upwards of 1,600 miles (2,600 km) from its source. Its eastern lobes covered New England and reached south to Cape Cod and Long Island, New York . The Keewatin Ice Sheet began west of Hudson Bay in

2747-535: The lake bed is also glacial residue. In some areas around the lake edge, the ground is underlain by permafrost at an average depth of 15 metres (49 ft). Where soil exists around the lake, it is mostly silt and clay as opposed to the sand of neighboring New Town. It does not support buildings well, nor does it give way to bedrock at a uniform depth. The military building and visitor's centre both encountered construction difficulties due to this. There have been two significant periods of study on Frame Lake. One, in

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2814-466: The lake in his childhood. In 2013 another local resident organized a Canada Day cleanup and swim in the lake, saying concerns about arsenic and leeches in the water were exaggerated. The Carleton study carried out under a grant from Tides Canada and the Royal Bank of Canada in 2015 established that the lake had declined more precipitously since 1970, and described how. It will continue to measure

2881-422: The lake. At the same time, runoff from storms carried increasingly nutrient-rich waters into the lake. In colder months when the lake surface was not frozen over, the city dumped plowed snow into the lake, adding even more nutrients. Sewage dumped into nearby Niven Lake, heavily used for that purpose for almost 35 years of Yellowknife's postwar growth, may also have flowed into Frame, offering more nutrients. By

2948-545: The lake. They did not find any fish, the only one of the seven lakes where this was the case. Frame nevertheless recorded the highest biomass count of the seven lakes, 7.32 grams of dry weight per square meter of bed, more than three times the second highest reading, on the second of two sampling periods in summer 1971. At the same time, that biomass had the lowest ash content of any of the sampled lakes as well. Healey and Woodall were not able to analyze any sediments underneath more than one meter (3.3 ft) of water because

3015-547: The larger lake, it had a notably alkaline pH of 8.5, reflecting higher concentrations of salts, and a specific conductance of 332, well below Kam but around three times the values obtained for the other four lakes. Its calcium , magnesium , potassium , and sodium levels were higher than any other lake except Kam, and it had the highest bicarbonate levels at 132.4 mg/L. The lake was found to be generally isothermal , although its depths cooled significantly in August, when

3082-442: The later of two samples was taken. Plenty of oxygen was still in the water. The researchers attributed Frame's high biochemical oxygen demand and "peculiar chemical characteristics" to not only the proximity of downtown but the city's use of the lake as a dump for plowed snow. "Frame Lake had the most peculiar species assemblage for the region", the two wrote of the results of their zooplankton findings. Daphnia middendoffiana ,

3149-442: The loss of northern artifacts and collections , and the need to provide museum services and support throughout the Northwest Territories under a government mandate. In 1972, a program calling for the development of museum services in the NWT received official approval from the Government of the Northwest Territories. Construction started in 1975. On April 3, 1979, His Royal Highness, Prince Charles , Prince of Wales , officiated at

3216-567: The mid- to late-1990s. That was preceded by a rapid replacement of epiphytic species with benthic ones around 1990. It was not clear to Shenstone-Harris that that event had been the result of climate change. From 1956 to 1992, the last year records were kept, ice cover on the lake remained relatively stable throughout the winter, yet the amount of Cyclotella and Fragliaria , two genera whose species have been shown to be responsive to changing ice cover and warming climates, varied considerably. This suggested to her that while climate change may be

3283-568: The only Cladocera species found in Frame, was present in only that lake of the seven. Likewise, several copepods — Heterecope sententrionalis and Diaptomus pribilofensis and leptopus —were unique to Frame. Cyclops vernalis was the only species the lake shared with any of the others. "The species in Frame Lake are typical of a lake west of the continental divide , in Alaska or northern British Columbia , but extremely uncommon east of

3350-592: The opening of the facility that bears his name. The PWNHC holds in trust for the public a large collection of objects that represent the peoples and cultures of the NWT, and produces exhibitions that tell stories about the land, people and history of the NWT. However, the PWNHC is "more than a museum". In addition to its exhibits, collections and conservation programs, the PWNHC houses the NWT Archives, provides technical, logistic and financial support to individuals and organizations involved in cultural activities and

3417-480: The original shoreline and vegetation as possible, on the north shore of the lake in 1993. By then, all recreational use of the lake itself had ended. Many residents were too leery of leeches, which thrived in the lake in the absence of fish preying on them, to enter the water. Instead, the lake became the focus of the 5.5-kilometre (3.4 mi) Frame Lake Trail, a partially paved path around the entire shoreline, which soon became popular for walking and jogging. In 2007,

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3484-457: The particles were too fine for the Ekman dredge sifter that they used. In 2013 Sarah Shenstone-Harris, a University of Toronto undergraduate interning at the school's Centre for Global Climate Science, was able to analyze the sediments. She looked to the diatoms in them to try to see if climate change had played a role in the lake's decline. If so, she also asked, when did that change occur, and

3551-426: The patches of sediment Mallon recalled from his youthful recreation on the lake in his 2015 article, noting that "I can still vividly feel the stuff's gloopy embrace on my feet" (although an accompanying sidebar by another reporter suggested that the sediments may be the result of sewage back-flushed from Niven Lake). Wisconsin glaciation The Wisconsin glaciation , also called the Wisconsin glacial episode ,

3618-539: The point that only small remnants were left, such as Athabasca , Great Bear and Great Slave Lakes . Along with those larger lakes were smaller lakes like Frame, where fine sand that accumulated in depressions formed the lake bed. Human use of the lake began with the Dene , the First Nations in the region, whose ancestors settled there around 7,500 years ago. The Yellowknife band, who would later give their name to

3685-423: The proglacial river valleys. Numerous small, isolated water bodies formed between the moraine and the ice front. As the ice sheet would continue to melt and recede northward, these ponds combined into proglacial lakes . In areas without an available outlet, the water levels would either continue to rise until reaching one or more low spots along the rim of a moraine, or the ice sheet would retreat, opening access to

3752-464: The ratio of chrysophyte stomatocysts to establish nutrient levels in the water at that time. Due to diatom dissolution at the lowest level of the sediments taken, Shenstone-Harris was unable to establish data for any years earlier than 1943, making it impossible to set the desired baseline for a pre-settlement Frame Lake. However, she was able to establish that the lake had always been at a high trophic state , even before it became fully eutrophied by

3819-450: The road itself runs alongside part of the lake's southwestern shore for 100 metres (330 ft). After it curves away to the west, the northwestern side and northern end of the lake are all taiga and bedrock between Frame and nearby Robinson's Pond and Jackfish Lake, with just the trail alongside. Amid a park-like setting on the northeastern corner of the lake, and the northern shore of the western arm, stand two other large public buildings:

3886-476: The shallow waters near his home at that time. Later the Frame Lake South area was developed for residential and commercial use as the city grew. Storm sewers installed for these projects diverted the runoff that had once fed the lake, increasing the concentration of nutrients in the water. The Northwest Territories Legislative Assembly moved into its new building , designed to preserve as much of

3953-540: The shoreline, except for some shallow bays with weed beds. On the eastern shore, near the southern end of the lake, is an overgrown sandy area called McNiven Beach, after the city's first mayor. The developed areas of Yellowknife form a "V" around the lake. On the eastern side, and the southern shore of the arm, is New Town, the city's modern downtown. Public buildings such as City Hall, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police 's local headquarters, and

4020-409: The sides and front of the ice sheet; elongated accumulations of this material are known as kames . Mounds along the frontal edge of the ice are called moraines . Wherever a subglacial tunnel began infilling, long winding formations known as eskers would form. The sweeping plain of sand and gravel beyond the ice margin and a terminal moraine is called an outwash plain . The materials left under

4087-408: The way to Frame Lake; the southerly has largely been channelized , draining Range Lake 600 metres (2,000 ft) to the west, itself fed by a stream of similarly short length flowing into it from the west. Surrounding terrain, as well as that of the islands, is primarily taiga forest, amid mostly bare outcrops of Canadian Shield bedrock typical of the Yellowknife area. Bare rock predominates on

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4154-425: The western shore and an arm extends roughly 500 metres (1,600 ft) to the east, curving northward. At their widest shorelines, both sections are roughly the same distance apart. Five small islands are located within the lake, three in the northern section and two in the southern section. Its total surface area is 84 hectares (210 acres). The lake lies at an elevation of 186 metres (610 ft). Surrounding terrain

4221-424: Was considering as sites for an experimental fishery. Among the others studied were the larger Kam Lake to the south, and five others outside city limits. Their analysis, published in 1973, showed that while Frame's water quality was still good enough to support the recreational use that was still occurring, there were already some signs of decline. Chemical analysis of the water showed similarities to Kam Lake. Like

4288-524: Was due to climate change , pollution or some combination of both; the possibility exists that the lake has always been at a higher trophic state than others in the area. Some city residents have agitated for efforts to reclaim the lake so it will once again be a destination for swimmers, anglers and boaters in warm weather. To do so, it will be necessary to reoxygenate the water to the point that fish can again inhabit its waters. This could be accomplished either by aeration or dredging , which would remove

4355-422: Was it possible to restore the lake to a level of water quality comparable to what it had been prior to the establishment of Yellowknife? Shenstone-Harris started from the observation that subarctic lakes generally had shown great sensitivity to climate change because of shifts in the amount of ice cover. Those stresses could be exacerbated for subarctic lakes in an urban area facing higher levels of pollution from

4422-662: Was synchronous with global glaciation during the last glacial period, including the North American alpine glacier advance, known as the Pinedale glaciation . The Wisconsin glaciation extended from about 75,000 to 11,000 years ago, between the Sangamonian Stage and the current interglacial, the Holocene . The maximum ice extent occurred about 25,000–21,000 years ago during the last glacial maximum , also known as

4489-725: Was the most recent glacial period of the North American ice sheet complex, peaking more than 20,000 years ago. This advance included the Cordilleran Ice Sheet , which nucleated in the northern North American Cordillera ; the Innuitian ice sheet , which extended across the Canadian Arctic Archipelago ; the Greenland ice sheet ; and the massive Laurentide Ice Sheet , which covered the high latitudes of central and eastern North America. This advance

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