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69-632: The Yellowknife Highway , officially Northwest Territories Highway 3 and also known as the Great Slave Highway , is a highway connecting Yellowknife , Northwest Territories , to the Mackenzie Highway , from a junction 188 km (117 mi) north of the Alberta border. First completed in 1960 as a gravel and dirt road, the highway is now paved and realigned after years of work concluded in 2006. Access to Yellowknife prior to

138-761: A premier , which forms the Executive Council of the Northwest Territories , also known as the cabinet . In addition, a Commissioner is appointed by the Federal Government to fulfil a similar role to that of the Lieutenant Governor . The Northwest Territories is one of only two federal, provincial or territorial jurisdictions in Canada that operate under a consensus system of government . The Northwest Territories

207-593: A 27 km (17 mi) drive via the Ingraham Trail . Yellowknife has three publicly funded school boards (districts) that provide kindergarten and grades 1–12: The NWT Montessori Society offers the Montessori program up to Grade 5 at Yellowknife Education District No. 1's Macpherson School. In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada , Yellowknife had a population of 20,340 living in 7,519 of its 7,975 total private dwellings,

276-419: A change of 3.9% from its 2016 population of 19,569 . With a land area of 103.37 km (39.91 sq mi), it had a population density of 196.8/km (509.6/sq mi) in 2021. As of the 2016 Census , there were 19,569 people and 7,130 households in the city. The population density was 185.5/km (480/sq mi). The 2016 Census found that 22.7% of residents identified as Indigenous . In 2017,

345-470: A downturn in the 1990s during the closure of the gold mines and the downsizing of the government workforce in 1999, Yellowknife's economy has recovered, largely because of the diamond boom; the Ekati Diamond Mine , owned and operated by BHP Billiton (sold to Dominion Diamond Corporation in 2013), opened in 1998. A second mine, Diavik Diamond Mine , began production in 2003. Production from

414-467: A ferry service (May–January) and ice bridge (December to March). Transportation was interrupted in the spring for approximately five weeks when the ice bridge became unsafe but ice conditions prevented safe ferry operations. The ferry-vessel Johnny Berens served from 1961 to 1972, and the MV Merv Hardie served from 1972 to 2012. The Deh Cho Bridge opened on November 30, 2012, and replaced

483-590: A large variation between day and night. Daylight hours range from five hours of daylight in December to 20 hours in June. Civil Twilight lasts all night from late May to mid-July. Yellowknife has a subarctic climate ( Köppen : Dfc , Trewartha Ecld ). Although winter is predominantly polar, rapid heat waves emerge at the summit of summer due to the immense path south. The city averages less than 300 mm (12 in) of precipitation annually, as it lies in

552-416: A larger crew to develop the previous gold finds and search for more. Gold was found on the east side of Yellowknife Bay in 1934 and the short-lived Burwash Mine was developed. When government geologists uncovered gold in more favourable geology on the west side of Yellowknife Bay in the fall of 1935, a small staking rush occurred. From 1935 to 1937, one prospector and trapper named Winslow C. Ranney staked in

621-502: A modern transportation system. Yellowknife Airport is the busiest airport in northern Canada , having 70,699 aircraft movements in 2007 and handling over 400,000 passengers and 30,000 tonnes of cargo yearly. It has two asphalt runways, one 7,500 ft (2,300 m) strip and another of 5,000 ft (1,500 m); while the Yellowknife Airport is classified as an airport of entry by Nav Canada and

690-527: A portion of their operating revenue through property taxation. Property taxes in Yellowknife are calculated through property assessment and the municipal and education mill rates. Mill rates in 2005 were 13.84 (residential) and 19.87 (commercial). Canadian North , a regional airline, was headquartered in Yellowknife, in the Northwest Tower in downtown. The airline announced that when its lease

759-443: A purchased tag. The City of Yellowknife Solid Waste Management Facility is located on the Ingraham Trail (Highway 4) 2 km (1.2 mi) north of the city; salvaging is encouraged, and the dump is infamous for the number of still useful items often found in it. The City of Yellowknife provides pressurized potable water throughout the majority of the city, and has a network of gravity-fed sewage lines; trucked water and sewage

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828-424: A small quantity of radioactive nuclear fuel was released into the environment, and Operation Morning Light —an attempt to retrieve it—was only partially successful. A new mining rush and fourth building boom in Yellowknife began with the discovery of diamonds 300 km (190 mi) north of the city in 1991. The Giant Mine was the subject of a bombing during a labour dispute in 1992 that resulted in one of

897-712: Is a weather station for Klondike located along the Dempster Highway , near the southern entrance of Tombstone Territorial Park , at an elevation of 973 m (3192 ft). Klondike is a district of the Legislative Assembly of Yukon . The former Premier of the Yukon, Liberal Sandy Silver , represents the electoral district of Klondike. The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people have continuously occupied the Klondike region for over 9000 years, and UNESCO has stated this

966-561: Is done on a regular schedule by the City of Yellowknife public works department. Speed limits are 45 km/h (28 mph) on most roads, 30 km/h (19 mph) in school zones , and 70 to 100 km/h (43 to 62 mph) on highways. School zones and playground zones are in effect 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The highway system in the NWT is maintained by the Government of

1035-669: Is famed due to the Klondike Gold Rush , which started in 1896 and lasted until 1899. Since then, gold has been mined continuously in that area, except for a pause in the late 1960s and early 1970s. In 2023, the cultural landscape of the Tr’ondëk-Klondike was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, because of its testimony to the adaptation of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in people to the European colonization that began in

1104-610: Is home to most of the city's commercial activity, though some retail does exist in Range Lake. Industrial activity is limited to the Kam Lake and airport subdivisions. Jolliffe Island sits in Yellowknife Bay and is public land under the jurisdiction of the City of Yellowknife after a land purchase when Imperial Oil vacated the site. The island is surrounded by a community of houseboats, where people have been living off

1173-545: Is in the federal electoral riding of the Northwest Territories and has one Member of Parliament , Michael McLeod , and one Senator , Margaret Dawn Anderson . Yellowknife is home to seven of the 19 electoral districts in the Northwest Territories, the Frame Lake , Great Slave , Kam Lake , Range Lake , Yellowknife Centre , Yellowknife North and Yellowknife South ridings. As the largest city in

1242-467: Is on the Canadian Shield , which was scoured down to rock during the last ice age . The surrounding landscape is very rocky and slightly rolling, with many small lakes in addition to the larger Great Slave Lake. Trees such as spruce and birch are abundant in the area, as are smaller bushes, but there are also many areas of relatively bare rock with lichen . Yellowknife's high latitude causes

1311-495: Is provided in areas not serviced by piped infrastructure. Sewage , with the aid of lift stations, is pumped to a series of lakes, referred to as Fiddler's Lake Lagoon, where it is held and allowed to naturally decompose. Water is obtained from the Yellowknife River and is disinfected with chlorine and liquid fluoride is added, but is not otherwise filtered or treated. Yellowknife, while isolated geographically, has

1380-752: Is staffed by the Canada Border Services Agency , it is certified for general aviation aircraft only. The Yellowknife airport is designated by the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) as a forward operating location for the CF-18 Hornet . Despite its shorter runways, the airport can still accommodate 747s and other wide-body aircraft for emergency landings. Air traffic control services, Instrument landing system (Category 1), and radar services are provided by Nav Canada. YKTransit (formerly Yellowknife Transit)

1449-498: Is the public transportation agency in the city, operating three regular services Monday-Saturday and one express route on weekdays. It is the only transit system in the Northwest Territories. Road construction in Yellowknife is often a challenge due to the presence of permafrost which requires that roads generally be regraded and resurfaced every 10 to 20 years. Most roads in Yellowknife are paved and road width varies from 9 to 13.5 m (30 to 44 ft). Winter snow removal

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1518-549: The Gahcho Kue Diamond Mine Project on the property formerly known as Kennady Lake . The mine was officially opened on 20 September 2016, and began commercial production in March 2017. As well, growth and expansion in natural gas development and exploration sectors has contributed to this growth. Economic growth in the Northwest Territories was 10.6% in 2003. The major employers in Yellowknife include

1587-747: The Yellowknives Dene First Nation . They traded tools made from copper deposits near the Arctic Coast. Modern Yellowknives members can be found in city and in the adjoining, primarily Indigenous communities of Ndilǫ and Dettah . The city's population, which is ethnically mixed, was 20,340 per the 2021 Canadian Census . Of the eleven official languages of the Northwest Territories, five are spoken in significant numbers in Yellowknife: Dene Suline , Dogrib , South and North Slavey , English, and French. In

1656-445: The rain shadow of mountain ranges to the west. Due to its location on Great Slave Lake, Yellowknife has a frost-free growing season that averages slightly over 100 days. In an occasional year, the first fall frost does not come until October. Most of the limited precipitation falls between June and October, with April being the driest month of the year and August having the most rainfall. Snow that falls in winter accumulates on

1725-747: The Canadian capital city with the smallest population. On August 16, 2023, the territorial government began evacuating Yellowknife as wildfires approached the city, fearing that the Yellowknife Highway (Highway 3)—the main road leading into Yellowknife—would soon be inaccessible. The government also worked with homeless residents to assist them in evacuating. Air Canada and WestJet were initially criticized for high prices and unwaived cancellation fees for flights to and from Yellowknife, but they have since changed policies to alleviate financial burden for evacuees. Both carriers also increased

1794-462: The Dogrib language, the city is known as Sǫǫ̀mbak’è ( Athapascan pronunciation: [sõːᵐbakʼe] , "where the money is"). The Yellowknife settlement is considered to have been founded in 1934, after gold was found in the area, although commercial activity in the present-day waterfront area did not begin until 1936. Yellowknife quickly became the centre of economic activity in the NWT, and

1863-629: The Government of the Northwest Territories reported that the population was 20,834 with an average yearly growth rate of 0.6% from 2007. In Yellowknife, the population is slightly younger at 34.6 than the average age for the rest of the NWT which is 34.9. However, the population is slightly disproportionate in terms of age distribution compared to the national average of 41.0. As of the 2016 figures, 13.9% of residents were 9 or under, 6.0% were from 10 to 14 years old, 13.1% were from 15 to 24, 34.1.2% were from 25 to 44, 22.0% were from 45 to 59, and 10.9% were 60 or older. Klondike, Yukon The Klondike

1932-483: The NWT and Yellowknife is the main entry point for visitors. Many tourists come to experience the Northern climate and traditional lifestyle, as well as to see the aurora . In 2004–2005, visitors to the territory spent CA$ 100.5 million. The City of Yellowknife raises 50% of its operating revenue through property taxation . Both Yellowknife Education District No. 1 and Yellowknife Catholic School Board also raise

2001-489: The Northwest Territories and Nunavut. This ice road is usually open from the end of January through late March or early April, and Yellowknife becomes the dispatch point for the large number of truck drivers that come north to drive on the ice roads. During the 2007 ice road season, several drivers were featured on the History Channel TV series Ice Road Truckers . Tourism is the largest renewable industry in

2070-480: The Northwest Territories delegates powers to the municipality through legislative acts and regulations. Council meetings are held in the Council Chambers at City Hall on the second and fourth Monday of each month, and are open to the public. Municipal elections are held every three years. The current mayor of Yellowknife is Rebecca Alty, who succeeded Mark Heyck in 2018. Alty was elected 16 October 2018 and

2139-442: The Northwest Territories, Yellowknife is the hub for mining, industry, transportation, communications, education, health, tourism, commerce, and government activity in the territory. Historically, Yellowknife's economic growth came from gold mining, and later government; however, because of falling gold prices and increased operating costs, the final gold mine closed in 2004, marking a turning point for Yellowknife's economy. After

Yellowknife Highway - Misplaced Pages Continue

2208-429: The Northwest Territories. Highway 4 (Ingraham Trail) and Highway 3 (Yellowknife Highway) both run through Yellowknife and are all-weather roads. One well-known, almost infamous, road in Yellowknife is Ragged Ass Road , after which Tom Cochrane named an album. Until 2012, Yellowknife did not have a permanent road connection to the rest of Canada's highway network, as the Yellowknife Highway relied, depending on

2277-541: The Pacific Ocean to the Klondike River to spawn for at least 65,000 years, and archeological evidence suggests that they have been fished as early as 11,500 years ago. Caribou also migrate through the Klondike region during their seasonal migrations. Other species found in the region include moose , black bear , grizzly bear , lynx , marten , wolf , wolverine , Dall's sheep , and beaver . There

2346-721: The Snare-Bluefish systems, provided by the Northwest Territories Power Corporation (NTPC). NTPC's local production capacity is 67.9 megawatts, 30.89 MW from 10 generators at the Jackfish Diesel Plant, 28.8 MW from Snare Lake, and 7.5 MW from Miramar Bluefish. Residential garbage removal is through a user pay system, in which residents are allowed three 77 L (17 imp gal; 20 US gal) garbage bags per week; any additional bags must have

2415-574: The Territorial Government, the Federal Government, Diavik Diamond Mines, Dominion Diamonds, DeBeers Canada, First Air , NorthwesTel , RTL Robinson Trucking, and the City of Yellowknife. Government employment accounts for 7,644 jobs, a large percentage of those in Yellowknife. During winter, the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road is opened for semi-trailer truck traffic to take supplies from Yellowknife north to various mines located in

2484-638: The Yukon River in the sub-arctic region of Northwest Canada, Tr’ondëk-Klondike lies within the homeland of the Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in First Nation. It contains archaeological and historic sources that reflect Indigenous people’s adaptation to unprecedented changes caused by the Klondike Gold Rush at the end of the 19th century. The series illustrates different aspects of the colonization of this area, including sites of exchange between

2553-529: The area between David Lake and Rater Lake with few commercial results. The nearby hill known as Ranney Hill is his namesake and a popular hiking destination today. Con Mine was the most impressive gold deposit and its development created the excitement that led to the first settlement of Yellowknife in 1936–1937. Some of the first businesses were Corona Inn, Weaver & Devore Trading , Yellowknife Supplies and post office, and The Wildcat Cafe . Con Mine entered production on 5 September 1938. Yellowknife boomed in

2622-592: The center of the Indigenous community until the 1950s. After the Klondike Gold Rush ended near the turn of the 20th century, many of the boomtowns quickly became ghost towns, but Dawson City remained the capital of the Yukon until 1953 (when the capital was moved to Whitehorse ). Several achaeological sites in the Klondike were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2023 as a cultural landscape, described as follows: Located along

2691-505: The city's fire, ambulance, rescue, and hazardous materials responses. A point of debate in recent years has been the implementation of 911 services in Yellowknife (currently one may now dial 911) through a partnership with five other Northwest Territories communities; the cost of installation is currently estimated at around $ 1 million a year. There have been a number of incidents where emergency services have been either misdirected, or improperly dispatched. Health services are provided through

2760-503: The city. On August 19, 2023, 87 percent of the city was evacuated as of 6:58 am (ET), with only 2,600 of the original 20,000 remaining, 1,000 of whom were essential workers. NWT Premier Caroline Cochrane announced that she had evacuated to Alberta to avoid taking up a space on one of the last planes to leave. The evacuation order was rescinded 6 September and Yellowknife residents began to return later that day. An estimated 1,000 people had been flown home by September 8. Yellowknife

2829-461: The coldest winter and longest snow cover season, along with the sunniest spring and summer, of any city in Canada. Yellowknife, like most other urban centres, has distinct commercial, industrial, and residential areas. Frame Lake, Niven Lake, Range Lake, and Old Town are the residential sectors, with some of the population living in high-rises in the downtown core. Niven Lake is the only area under active development and expansion. Downtown Yellowknife

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2898-628: The community is the historic and traditional home of the Yellowknives Dene, the land's First Nations residents. Dettah was the first formal settlement in the area, which was founded by the Yellowknives in the 1930s and located on a point of land on the east side of Yellowknife Bay. The name Dettah means Burnt Point and refers to a traditional fishing camp that the Dene used for hundreds of years. The current municipal area of Yellowknife

2967-477: The deadliest mass murders in Canada with 9 deaths. The last of the gold mines in Yellowknife closed in 2004. Today, Yellowknife is primarily a government town and a service centre for the diamond mines. On 1 April 1999, its purview as capital of the NWT was reduced when the territory of Nunavut was split from the NWT. As a result, jurisdiction for that region of Canada was transferred to the new capital city of Iqaluit . Consequently, Yellowknife lost its standing as

3036-525: The discovery of precious metals in the area led to a steady increase in the arrival of colonists during the 1880s, and in 1893, the first permanent non-Indigenous settlement was founded at Ch’ëdähdëk (Forty Mile) , at the site of an ancient indigenous hunting spot. When gold was discovered nearby in 1896, several boomtowns were founded and the landscape around the Klondike transformed into an industrial hub. Nearly 30,000 people arrived in Dawson City over

3105-422: The early 1930s, and prospectors began fanning out to find additional metals. In 1933 two prospectors, Herb Dixon and Johnny Baker, canoed down the Yellowknife River from Great Bear Lake to survey for possible mineral deposits. They found gold samples at Quyta Lake, about 30 km (19 mi) up the Yellowknife River, and some additional samples at Homer Lake. The following year, Johnny Baker returned as part of

3174-541: The ferry/ice bridge. Trucks pay tolls on northbound crossings, with pre-registered trucks using an electronic device being charged automatically. Private passenger vehicles do not pay a toll. Estimated costs have more than tripled since 2003. In 2021, the Tłı̨chǫ Highway (Highway 9) opened as a branch from the Yellowknife Highway. Yellowknife Yellowknife is the capital, largest community, and

3243-567: The grid since 1978. Their relationship with the city is complex and often strained as the houseboats are popular with sightseers, but at the same time their residents live outside of the city's tax jurisdiction while still using city services, leading to lawsuits and tensions with the City of Yellowknife. Yellowknife has a municipal government system and is governed by the Yellowknife City Council , which consists of an elected mayor and eight councillors . The Government of

3312-525: The ground until the spring thaw. Yellowknife experiences very cold winters and mild to warm summers. The average temperature in January is around −26 °C (−15 °F) and 17 °C (63 °F) in July. According to Environment and Climate Change Canada , Yellowknife has the sunniest summer in the country, averaging 1,034 hours from June to August. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Yellowknife

3381-423: The independent Yellowknife Telephone Company, owned by investors mostly within the community. The system was sold at the end of 1963 to Canadian National Telecommunications , now Northwestel. Northwestel also provides manual mobile telephone service on VHF frequencies, and by the 1990s also provided cellular services that were later transferred to Bell Mobility . In 2008, northern-based company Ice Wireless entered

3450-501: The late 19th century. Klondike has a subarctic climate ( Köppen Dfc ), bordering on a tundra climate ( Köppen ET ). The climate is warm in the short summer, and very cold during the long winter. By late October, ice forms over the rivers. For the majority of the year, the ground is frozen to a depth of 1 to 3 metres (3 to 10 ft). The landscape is dominated by spruce , aspen , and birch trees interspersed with riparian vegetation. Salmon have likely been migrating from

3519-508: The local Stanton Territorial Hospital . The Yellowknife Primary Care Centre has a broad range of practitioners including physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, counsellors, dieticians and more. Services provided at the Yellowknife Primary Care Centre include mental health, diabetes education, diagnostic imaging, psychiatry and some home care services. Yellowknife's telephone services were established in 1947 by

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3588-564: The market in Yellowknife, providing digital cellular products and services. Yellowknife's television services, in addition to over-the-air transmission begun in 1967, included the Mackenzie Media cable television system placed in service 1 September 1972, which was sold to Northwestel in late 1995. Electricity is provided to Yellowknife by Northland Utilities , serving 6,350 residential and 800 commercial customers. Yellowknife operates almost entirely on hydroelectricity from

3657-488: The next few years. In mid-1901 an expedition left California hoping to prove that the Klondike was the site of the Biblical Garden of Eden . It was sponsored ($ 50,000) by Mr Morris K. Jessup; with an American naturalist (Norman Buxton) and two Russian scientists (Waldemar Bogaras and Waldemar Jochelson). The Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in were forced to relocate downriver to an ancestral camp called Moosehide , where it became

3726-600: The north-northeast of Yellowknife from 1950 to 1969. Between 1939 and 1953, Yellowknife Administration district was controlled by the Northern Affairs department (now Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada) of the Government of Canada . A small council, partially elected and partially appointed, made decisions. By 1953, Yellowknife had grown so much that it was made a municipality, with its own council and town hall. The first mayor of Yellowknife

3795-412: The number of flights to Yellowknife. The smoke from the 236 active wildfires in the Northwest Territories spread quickly across Canada due to powerful winds and was compared by news sources to the 2023 Hawaii wildfires , which similarly started in a dry and windy environment. As of August 17, 2023 , the fire was 162,936 ha (402,620 acres) in size, at 16 km (9.9 mi) distance from

3864-548: The only city in the Northwest Territories , Canada. It is on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake , about 400 km (250 mi) south of the Arctic Circle , on the west side of Yellowknife Bay near the outlet of the Yellowknife River . Yellowknife and its surrounding water bodies were named after a local Dene tribe, who were known as the "Copper Indians" or "Yellowknife Indians", today incorporated as

3933-552: The opening of the Yellowknife Highway was possible only by airplane, winter road , or boat across Great Slave Lake . The highway also connects with Behchokǫ̀ (formerly Rae-Edzo) and Fort Providence . From Yellowknife, Highway 4 extends a further 70 km (43 mi) east, also providing access to the seasonal winter roads used by commercial trucking for mine resupply. Crossing the Mackenzie River (just south of Fort Providence) between 1960 and November 2012 required

4002-483: The season, on ferry service or an ice road to cross the Mackenzie River . With the completion of the Deh Cho Bridge , which officially opened on 30 November 2012, the city now has its first direct road connection to the rest of the country. One still-used ice road connects Yellowknife with the neighbouring community of Dettah , 6.5 km (4.0 mi) to the southeast across an arm of Great Slave Lake; or

4071-475: The summer of 1938 and many new businesses were established, including the Canadian Bank of Commerce , Hudson's Bay Company , Vic Ingraham's first hotel, Sutherland's Drug Store, and a pool hall. The population of Yellowknife quickly grew to 1,000 by 1940, and by 1942, five gold mines were in production in the Yellowknife region. However, by 1944, gold production had ground to a halt as men were needed for

4140-454: The two operating mines in 2004 was 12,618,000 carats (2,523.6 kg; 5,563.6 lb), valued at over CA$ 2.1 billion. This ranked Canada third in world diamond production by value, and sixth by weight. A third mine, the De Beers owned Snap Lake Diamond Mine , received final approval and funding in 2005 and went into production in 2007. De Beers also applied in 2005 for a permit to open

4209-682: The vicinity. Most mines in the Yellowknife area are within the Kam Group, a part of the Yellowknife greenstone belt . Policing in Yellowknife is provided by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP); Yellowknife is the headquarters for G Division, and houses more than 30 officers. The City of Yellowknife Municipal Enforcement Division (MED) is responsible for municipal bylaw infractions and traffic infractions (within city limits). The Yellowknife Fire Department handles

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4278-677: The war effort . An exploration program at the Giant Mine property on the north end of town had suggested a sizable gold deposit in 1944. This new find resulted in a massive post-war staking rush to Yellowknife. It also resulted in new discoveries at the Con Mine, greatly extending the life of the mine. The Yellowknife townsite expanded from the Old Town waterfront, and the new townsite was established during 1945–1946. The Discovery Mine , with its own townsite, operated 81 km (50 mi) to

4347-469: Was Jock McNiven . In September 1967, Yellowknife officially became the capital of the Northwest Territories . This important new status sparked what has been coined as the third boom in Yellowknife. New sub-divisions were established to house an influx of government workers. In 1978 the Soviet nuclear-powered satellite Kosmos 954 crashed to Earth near Yellowknife. There were no known casualties, although

4416-517: Was "fundamentally transformed during the colonial occupation of these lands." European traders began to arrive in the region in the mid 19th century, and in 1874, the first trading post in the Klondike ( Fort Reliance ) was established. Soon after, in 1876, the Indian Act was passed (without Indigenous negotiation), which restricted the ability of Indigenous Canadians to continue their cultural practices and live in their original lands. This act and

4485-515: Was first occupied by prospectors who ventured into the region in the mid-1930s. A Klondike -bound prospector, E.A. Blakeney, made the first discovery of gold in the Yellowknife Bay area in 1898. The discovery was viewed as unimportant in those days because of the Klondike Gold Rush and because Great Slave Lake was too far away to attract attention. In the late 1920s, aircraft were first used to explore Canada's Arctic regions. Samples of uranium and silver were uncovered at Great Bear Lake in

4554-425: Was named the capital of the Northwest Territories in 1967. As gold production began to wane, Yellowknife shifted from being a mining town to a centre of government services in the 1980s. However, with the discovery of diamonds north of the city in 1991, this shift began to reverse. In recent years, tourism, transportation, and communications have also emerged as significant Yellowknife industries. The area around

4623-606: Was sworn in 5 November. Yellowknife is represented in the territorial government by seven of the 19 members of the Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories . These members, referred to as MLAs, are elected every four years and sit in the Northwest Territories Legislative Building , located in Yellowknife. The MLAs elect the Speaker of the House as well as six cabinet ministers and

4692-505: Was to expire in the end of August 2013, the airline will vacate the office and move it and 20 employees out of Yellowknife. The airline is now headquartered in Calgary . Yellowknife was originally established as a supply centre for numerous gold mines operating in the region in the late 1930s and early 1940s. The following is a list of the major mines, all of which are now closed. There were also tungsten , tantalum and uranium mines in

4761-563: Was −51.2 °C (−60.2 °F) on 31 January 1947, and the highest was 32.6 °C (90.7 °F) on 2 August 2021. Yellowknife averages 2256.5 hours of bright sunshine per year or 43.5% of possible daylight hours, ranging from a low of 15.4% in December to a high of 63.0% in June. Due to its warm summer temperatures, Yellowknife is well below the Arctic tree line in stark contrast to areas farther east in Canada on similar parallels. In 2014, Environment Canada ranked Yellowknife as having

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