Historical timeline
In one form or another, the name "Northwest Territories" has been around for centuries. In the early fur trade era of the 1600s, the Hudson's Bay Company was given an exclusive British charter in Rupert's Land - the vast chunk of not-yet-born Canada whose waters drain into Hudson Bay. Rival traders struggled for a foothold north and west of Lake Superior, in a measureless hinterland that came to be called "The North-Western Territory."
1771 Samuel Hearne reached the mouth of the Coppermine River in the company of the Chipewyan Chief Matonabbee.
1789 Alexander Mackenzie travelled down Deh Cho, the great river, to reach the Arctic Ocean. He noticed oil seepages near the present-day town of Norman Wells.
1810 A Hudson's Bay Company post was established at Tulit'a (Fort Norman).
1861 Fr. Emile Petitot began his famous murals on the interior walls of the Mission Church at Fort Good Hope.
1821 The Yellowknives Dene Chief Akaitcho rescued starving survivors of an expedition to the Arctic coast led by Lt. John Franklin of the Royal Navy. Franklin returned in 1825-27, and survived a more successful journey to the coast, wintering at Fort Franklin on Great Bear Lake. In 1845, however, Franklin's three ships and 129 men disappeared into the frozen Arctic forever.
1867 After Confederation, Rupert's Land and The North-Western Territory were both ceded to Canada, becoming "The North-West Territories." Today's Nunavut, Yukon and parts of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Labrador were all included in the deal.
1881 The Arctic Islands were added to the NWT, but Manitoba's boundaries were extended north.
1885 Many French-Cree Mιtis left Manitoba after the Riel uprising to create new lives in the NWT.
1898 The gold-rich Yukon broke off from the NWT to become a separate territory, and Quebec expanded northward. Other provinces followed suit over the years, swallowing up parts of the NWT as they did so.
1912 The North West Mounted Police establish a detachment at Herschel Island, with the purpose of "showing the Canadian Flag" in the Western Arctic.
1913 Vilhjalmur Stefansson and Diamond Jenness began ethnological studies of the Western Arctic Inuit.
1921 Imperial Oil attempted to send the first-ever planes to fly NWT skies to Norman Wells. After a few crash landings, the mission was abandoned.
1925 When the boundaries of Canada were extended to the North Pole, the Northwest Territories ballooned to 3.3 million sq km - about a third of the nation's land-mass.
1929 The Thelon Game Sanctuary was created, largely on the recommendation of John Hornby, the eccentric British wanderer who died there in 1927.
1930 Radium was discovered at Great Bear Lake. Since it was then worth $75,000 an ounce, a mining rush ensued. The community of Port Radium formed around the El Dorado mine.
1931 After terrorizing people of the Mackenzie Valley for weeks, the Mad Trapper of Rat River was shot dead by the Mounties and buried at Aklavik.
1934 A gold strike on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake brought about the beginnings of a community called Yellowknife.
1943 The U.S. Army built a 350 mile pipeline through the Mackenzie Mountains, connecting its right-of way from Norman Wells via Whitehorse to the new Alaska Highway. The pipeline was dismantled in 1947, but many relics were left behind, along what is now the Canol Heritage Trail.
1946 The Northern Transportation Company took charge of Mackenzie River shipping as the HBC bowed out.
1967 Yellowknife was named the capital of the Northwest Territories, and many administrative departments were transferred from Ottawa and Fort Smith.
1979 The new Dempster Highway, running from Dawson City Yukon to Inuvik, was completed.
1984 The Inuvialuit settled northern Canada's first Aboriginal land claim.
1994 The government of Canada and the Sahtu Tribal Council (representing the Hare, Sahtu Dene, Mountain Dene, and Mιtis of the region) signed the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement. It recognized Aboriginal ownership of major land parcels and provides royalties for use of other lands in the region. Claims by the Gwich'in and other Dene groups have been settled in succeeding years.
1998 North America's first diamond mine went into operation on the NWT Barrens at Lac de Gras.
1999 The creation of Nunavut cut the size of the Northwest Territories by roughly two thirds, to a mere million square kilometres.
2002 Parks Canada announced plans to create a new National Park on Great Slave Lake's East Arm.
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