Con. Giant. Discovery. Ptarmigan. Burwash. Tom. Negus.
Yellowknife's history is intertwined with gold mining.
Granted, chronicles and memory don't reveal an entirely glittering past. There's the troubling 237,000 tonnes of deadly arsenic trioxide dust still buried under Giant Mine. Giant was also the site of a 1992 explosion that rocked the city, literally and figuratively. Roger Warren set off a bomb during a labour dispute, killing nine replacement workers.
There have been other controversies too, but all of them are footsteps in our dance with gold mining that began in the 1930s. The Con, Giant and Discovery mines combined to produce more than 15 million ounces of gold. It's what spurred Yellowknife's growth for several decades. To this day, exploration companies are still searching for the next viable source of gold around the NWT capital.
There's also a movement afoot to enshrine some of the city's rich history in a museum. The Yellowknife Historical Society has working doggedly for years to convert the Giant Mine rec hall – a 1950s-vintage building – into a trove of mining artifacts. The $1.5-million project would include an exhibit hall, tea room, library and gift shop, all to be open to the public by 2020, if everything goes according to plan.
"When people come up here they want to see some of the local history and some of the local colour," said Walt Humphries, president of the Yellowknife Historical Society. "There is no group that's preserving Yellowknife history and local history, and that’s what we're doing."
He's right. The Prince of Wales Heritage Centre is a fine facility, rife with educational resources and fascinating documents, but it serves the NWT. It's not focused on Yellowknife's golden past.
It's a background we should be eager to share with curious tourists. Yellowknife has capitalized on aurora viewing, but has so far squandered opportunities to retell gripping tales of gold explorers wandering the tundra and highlight how the precious yellow metal was extracted in the sub-Arctic. Meanwhile, look at how the Yukon has built its tourism industry around imagery from the Klondike gold rush. Whitehorse and Dawson City have reaped the benefits.
Like so many things, the proposed Yellowknife mining museum is dependent on funding. This is where the City of Yellowknife, the GNWT and even the federal government should step up. A stamp of approval from the Yellowknives Dene would also be helpful. While the First Nations have expressed environmental concerns and have had to fight for a share of mining profits, they have wisely built several businesses around the mining industry.
The reminders of our past gold mining days are falling. Robertson's headframe – the tallest freestanding building in Yellowknife – was blasted to the ground two years ago. Giant Mine's headframe and roaster are gone too.
We shouldn't let it all slip away. The Yellowknife Historical Society is offering a golden opportunity to preserve some of what's left. It's time to grab our picks and shovels and ensure this rewarding idea is transformed into reality.