A couple years ago I offered a freelance writing course through the City. That’s when I met Cornelius Van Dyke. He wheeled into the second floor classroom at Sir John Franklin High School with the help of his wife, Cherryl, iPad in his good hand, looking like he meant business. He told me he liked inspirational stories
A 19th century map of the NWT Historian Ryan Silke has brought us stories of Yellowknife’s first rocks and first inhabitants. In this third installment of his series, he explores the first European to travel across the mainland Arctic – or at least the first to write about it. The experiences of the Dene, who discovered and explored
Only the brave or foolish, depending on your point of view, go outdoors during a Yellowknife winter. I’m content to stay indoors and let others enjoy the winter that’s all around me. But it hasn’t always been this way. Life is, I believe, a story written in the present, changeable and unpredictable, and this is mine. The lure of adventure,
Introducing yourself as a Yellowknifer to Canadians living south of the 60th parallel elicits a fairly standard response. It goes something like this: “I’m from Yellowknife.” “Yellowstone?” “No, Yellow-Knife.” “Wow, I’ve always wanted to visit the Yukon.” I’m not sure how the Northwest Territories became so supplanted by the Yukon that it does not even register as a place
Camp Antler, Prelude Lake near Yellowknife, NWT, August 1969 | N-1995-002-4185_REF by Catherine Dook Before iPods, before the Commissioner’s Ball, even before television that lasted longer than four hours, the social event of the year was the Territorial Young Campers’ Association Walkathon. Twenty miles long, the route snaked out toward Giant Mine. The walkers were expected to take all day. You collected pledges
by Laura Bain “Just a bunch of short trees and big rocks.” My exact words to Jocelyn, my first friend in Yellowknife, when she asked me what I thought about it up here. She said people either loved it or hated it. This was the summer of 2012. I had just moved into my aunt and uncle’s house and it was May and gross. I
It’s hard to know who to look at when you’re telling 200 people that your baseball coach caught you putting a gummy bear up your butt. (I was a kid, there’s a simple explanation, I don’t have room here to explain.) Do you look at your wife? No. She’s already said the gummy bear yarn is not one of
A couple sits on the porch of Riley Assaying, which was also home to the post office, near what is now known as Pilot’s Monument, circa 1938-1957.
Verse by Anthony Foliot you’re full blast with a four and you wish that you had more ‘cause a guy with a six just passed by going ten miles per hour because he’s got horse power flipping back his hair, he sure can fly (he had no comb) then coming down the straight is a
Bad neighbourhood: inside the Canadian Senate Two former premiers of the Northwest Territories, Nick Sibbeston and Dennis Patterson, both now Canadian senators, are among 30 members of that institution who have allegedly claimed nearly $1 million in inappropriate expenses. Based on information leaked ahead of the auditor general’s report on Senate spending, expected tomorrow, a CTV
For a lot of men in YK, winter weekends are spent sledding on the trails or laid out on the couch, beer in hand, watching football or hockey. Weeknights are even more “full.” Wednesdays on a bar stool at the Black Knight, Coyote’s, or Boston Pizza and various other nights tied up with recreational sports
Shiny new gear outside the pub On Wednesday, the NWT Brewing Company inched closer to opening their eagerly anticipated brewpub in Old Town with the arrival of a truckload of shiny new brewing equipment. “We’ve had a smile on our face for the last 24 hours,” says brewpub owner Miranda Stevens. “You put your head down
View north from Pilot’s Monument in Old Town in 1975. The point is where Air Tindi is located today.
Ever wonder how to salvage a truck at the bottom of a lake? We at EDGE sure did, after a Yellowknife firefighter plunked his new Ford F-350 truck through the brittle ice of Pontoon Lake about a month ago, leaving a sad, truck-shaped hole. On Tuesday evening, the mystery was solved as the truck was
What kind of Yard Saler are you? The Early Bird, who needs to get first crack at the good stuff as soon as the first table is set up? Or, are you the Latecomer, who waits to grab what sellers are practically giving away at noon? Either way, it looks like you’ve got a busy