All About Yellowknife

Greetings,

It is our pleasure to share our knowledge of the History, Culture and Geography of Yellowknife and the Northwest Territories. Yellowknife is the best place to see Northern Lights and Yellowknife is a world famous Northern Lights Destination. Also in the past few years Yellowknife has been called the Aurora Capital of the World and becoming more and more popular every year.

History of Yellowknife

Yellowknife was founded in the Year 1934 and Yellowknife was Incorporated as City of Yellowknife in the Year 1970.

Yellowknife is located in the Chief Drygeese Territory, from thousands of years it has been the traditional land of Yellowknives Dene First Nations.

Yellowknife was not always a tourist hub, Yellowknife initially became famous for gold. The gold was first discovered in the year 1934 in Yellowknife Bay area. Later Yellowknife started booming as a typical mining town and remained a mining town for the next 50 Years. During this time there were major deposits of Diamonds discovered north of Yellowknife and over these years there were quite a few Diamond mines set up and due to the major production of Diamonds in the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife is also called the Diamond Capital of the North America.

In the mid 90’s due to major environmental concerns and other disputes gold mining was shut down in Yellowknife and it took 1 full decade for Yellowknife to transform into a Tourist hub, as Northern Lights were always here and because of this natures wonder Yellowknife is also known as Aurora Capital of the World Yellowknife and became extremely popular for Northern Lights Tours.

Local Culture in Yellowknife

Yellowknife’s culture is very rich with so many famous artists and many skilled workers, artisans, carvers and also ice carvers.  Yellowknife is very vibrant which has so many different ways of life’s, believes, traditions, culture and has population from all parts of the world.

Yellowknife Demographics

Population in Yellowknife is approximately 20,000 to 20,500 and about 24% is Indigenous population in Yellowknife. Locals refer themselves as Yellowknifer and there is no official demonym, the residents of Yellowknife and Northwest Territories are also referred as People of the North, Northwest Territorian, Northwester and Northwesterner. Local Indigenous Population in Yellowknife is Yellowknives Dene First Nations (Dene).

Yellowknife Geography

Yellowknife is on the North Shore of Great Slave Lake and approx 400 kilometers below the Arctic Circle however Yellowknife is Officially in the Sub Arctic region of Canada at 62.45 latitude. All of the Northwest Territory is above 60 Latitude which means about fifty percent of the Northwest Territory is in the Sub Arctic region and the other fifty percent is in the Canadian Arctic region. 60 Latitude is also known as Sixtieth parallel which is also the border in between Northwest Territories and Alberta. Yellowknife is in the same time zone as Alberta which is the Mountain Standard Time (MST).

Economy in Yellowknife

Major economy in Yellowknife is Tourism however the major economy for Northwest Territories is the Mining Industry. Majority of the Mining in Northwest Territories is Diamond Mining which has a long history in the Northwest Territories. In Yellowknife there are other occupations as well, there is a small fishing industry and also Government and Private working sectors. Major Employer in Yellowknife is Government of the Northwest Territories. 

More Info coming soon… Stay Tuned !