Into the North

              INTO THE NORTH
with the
NORTHERN CANADA
By Ann

WOMEN'S
Wilson

INSTITUTES

THE NORTH Our Northland Canada's last frontier the land beyond the 60th paraIIel Yukon and the Northwest Territories, comprises one-third of Canada's total area, with a population of around 45,000 in these two regions. This is no more than the population of a smaII southern city. It is a fascinating land with its midnight sun, dancing northern lights, eerie twilights, and the lure of undiscovered mines and oil weIIs. Despite this, it is a hard, trying land. The climate is harsh with long winters and low temperatures. The soil is thin in many parts, stiII bearing the marks of the last glacier which scraped away the soil and gouged out the rocks leaving innumerable lake basins. This stark land has beauty in its lakes and lingering sun sets. The tundra too, provides a seasonal panorama. In late spring it is studded with flowers, in summer it is spread with a rich, green carpet which turns a vivid red with the first autumn frost, and in winter it is an endless white tract. For more than one hundred years this land was left dormant. The Indians and Eskimos lived by hunting, fishing and trapping. The only outside visitors were the hardy explorers, the eager fur traders, the feverish prospectors, then the dedicated missionaries and government employees.

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SETTLEMENTS Today this land is beckoning again. With the advent of better communications - the aeroplane, the new Alaska and Mackenzie highways, the radio, the telephone, and now package TV, new settlements are springing up around oil weIIs and mine sites, and the old settlements are fanning out. Norman Wells owes its spot on the map to oil. YeIIowknife, on Great Slave Lake, shot up in the early 1930's when gold was discovered there. Today it is the largest town in the Northwest Territories and was named the permanent capital in 1967. Three gold mines bolster its economy. It received its name from the Indian tribe of this area which used yeIIow knives - copper that is. Pine Point, to the south of Great Slave Lake, is a settlement which has grown up around the newly developed lead and zinc mines. The first load of ore from here found its way over the new Northern Railway to Rossland, B.C., for refining in the faII of 1965. Hay River situated on the Hay River, the Mackenzie Highway and the Northern Railway, owes its expansion to the Great Slave Fisheries and transportation facilities. It is known as the Chicago Fish Market, because of the quantities of fish that are sent south to Chicago. Inuvik, the new town at the mouth of the Mackenzie River, is a distribution centre for the Delta area. Fort Smith, near the Alberta border, is also a distribution centre and, until 1967, was the main administration centre. Fort Simpson on the Mackenzie River, and Whitehorse (Haines Junction) in the Yukon, are sites of Experimental Stations where varieties of plants are 5