Those ’70s Stories: Gold Heists and Hijinks
After a series of odd jobs, young Glenn Smith landed employment at Con Mine in the winter of 1973, where one of his jobs was polishing gold bricks worth almost half-a-million dollars by today’s prices
history
Dook’s Look Back: Warming the Cold War
Culture in Yellowknife in the 1970s boiled down to the recitals put on by the students of our two local piano teachers, Gilbert and Sullivan operettas staged by the Singing North, whatever the junior and senior high schools were able to cobble together and Max Ferguson on the radio. We loved Max Ferguson. We got
The Russians Were Coming! The Battle For Yellowknife
At the height of the Cold War, a plucky band of local bush pilots, miners and reservists enacted their role in a worst-case invasion scenario — and won
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YK Past Blast: Early Aviation (UPDATED)
For the latest installment in our Leonard Willing historical photo series, Leonard’s nephew Glen Willing recently gave EDGE several photos offering a glimpse into Yellowknife’s early aviation history. The photo above shows Leonard himself, an assayer at Con and Negus Mines between 1938 and 1951, standing next to a Junkers W 34. These all-metal German
Life In A Northern Town: YK in the 1930s
Sometime between 1936 and 1938, a young photography enthusiast named Leonard Willing arrived in Yellowknife. Gold had been discovered in the area only a few years before and the mining town was booming. Willing worked at both Negus and Con mines as a lab technician and travelled the territory as a prospector. In the evenings, he
YK Past Blast: Vi Beck, 1981
Vi Beck at the races, 1981. Vi was one of Yellowknife’s driving forces for many years and is remembered by many for her hard work in the community. Unfortunately, Vi passed away in 2002.
YK Past Blast: Last Hoop at Giant Mine, 2004
The final residents of the Giant Mine townsite had to leave their homes in 2004/2005. The townsite had been home to dozens of families since the 1950s.
YK Past Blast: Jolliffe Island Birthday Party, 1993
Left to right: Nico Cullen, Jazzanne Braden, Britta Mayo, Kathleen Smith, Elora Braden, Miranda Booth and Maya MacGregor.
YK Past Blast: Bill Carpenter, 1989
Bill Carpenter at Bowspringer Kennel, 1989. Bill established the Canadian Eskimo Dog Foundation in the 1970s to bring the breed back from the brink of extinction.
YK Past Blast: Stilt Races, 1978
The epic stilt races of the Woodyard in the 1970s: left to right, Lou Rocher, John Rocher, Matt King, Gary Vaillancourt, Dave Cox and Cynthia Brown.
YK Past Blast: Fisherman Walter Bird, 1986
Walter was one of the Woodyard’s many commercial fishermen in the 1970s and ’80s.
YK Past Blast: Houseboat Spring, 1985
Cynthia Brown, Gary Vaillancourt, Greig Upton and John Alexander swap tales in the spring sunshine on the deck of John’s houseboat, which was one of the first to be built in Yellowknife Bay.
YK Past Blast: Ron and Agnes Williams, 1989.
Ron and Agnes ran Captain Ron’s B&B for many years on Latham Island near the causeway. He was called Captain Ron because of his tour boat, the “Naocha”, which was one of the first tour boats to ply the waters of Yellowknife Bay.