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The modern communities we see today, lying on the east
and west banks of the Hay River as it flows into Great Slave
Lake is a far cry from what the scene would have been 800
years or so ago, when Slave Dene of the area chose sites at
the mouth and a little up-stream for summer fish camps.
Archeological
and traditional evidence show usage by the aboriginal people
of the area of these pleasant and convenient sites. Dene tradition
also records that the Hay was used as a travel-way by the
Dene of the Meander River and Assumption areas of what is
now northwestern Alberta.
'Modern'
history records visits to the area on the east bank, today's
Katl'odeeche Reserve, from the early 1800's, though no permanent
settlement took hold until 1892-93, when Chief Chiatlo brought
a group to settle here, building log cabins and bringing dairy
cattle around the southwest end of Great Slave Lake from Fort
Providence.
Chiatlo
asked for missionaries to join his people and the Anglican
Church sent in Rev. Thomas Marsh in 1893. A church, residential
school and nursing station became part of the settlement in
the ensuing years of the last decade of that century. The
Anglicans were Joined by the Roman Catholics, and by the 1930's,
not only was commercial fishing beginning to take hold, but
a Hudson Bay post was established as were other trading ventures.
By the late 1930's, some people were living on Vale Island,
on the west side of the river.
By now, too, aircraft travel had changed the isolation of
northern settlements. World War II brought lasting and immense
change when the U.S. Army Engineering Corps built a gravel
runway on Vale Island, part of their staging process for the
building of the Canol Pipeline.
With
the end of the war, more attention was given to the commercial
fishing potential of Great
Slave Lake and more and more businesses and residents
moved to the community which was developing on Vale Island,
now the site of Old Town.
In
1949, an all-weather road was completed from Grimshaw/ Peace
River and Hay River became the first major community in the
Northwest Territories to be linked year-round by road to southern
Canada. In the early 1960's, Cominco took up its option for
development of the lead-zinc deposits at the site of the former
Pine Point Mines, 60 miles east of Hay River. The mine development
was contingent upon a rail line being built; this was duly
done, finishing in 1964 with a branch line to Hay River.
As well, in 1962, Canada Coast Guard selected Hay River and
its abundance of good harbour/docking areas in the small delta,
as main base for their operations stretching from Saskatchewan
and Lake Athabasca to the Arctic coast.
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In 1959, Northern
Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) had moved its main
operations to Hay River. With the completion of its synchrolift
and maintenance facilities by 1973, as well as the establishment
of local bases for major trucking companies, Hay River had
indeed become the transportation 'Hub of the North'.
A
huge flood at break-up in 1963 caused serious damage to homes,
businesses and some facilities on both sides of the river
and at the decree of the federal government, a new townsite
was established on the mainland, west bank, today's 'New Town'.
(See
map)
Slowly,
over the years, businesses, residents and light industry established
in the new site, producing the viable, fully-serviced community
visitors see when they arrive here now.
The
Town of Hay River was first incorporated in 1956, and is today,
one of only six tax-based communities in the NWT. At the outset,
the municipal boundaries included the Old and New Villages
on the east bank.
In
the mid 70's, the Hay River Dene Band formed the Hay River
Dene Reserve, the first reserve in NWT.
The
present municipal boundaries of Hay River extend to just south
of Paradise Valley, about 28 kilometres south on Highway 2;
these boundaries about those of the settlement of Enterprise.
The west and north boundaries are formed by the south shore
of Great Slave Lake to the west side of the mouth of the Hay
River.
From
its beginnings as a Dene and mission settlement of about 60
residents in 1892, the town has grown in just over 100 years
to a population of over 3600.
There
are some 400 Hay River Dene Band members and of these, just
over 260 live on the Reserve, part of a modern community that
combines business ventures with traditional and culturally-based
living.
Please direct inquiries to The Town
of Hay River .
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