Historical timeline

In one form or another, the name "Northwest Territories" has been around for centuries. In the early 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 vast hinterland that came to be called "The North-Western Territory."

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1771 Samuel Hearne reached the mouth of the Coppermine River in the company of the Chipewyan Chief Matonabee.

1789 Alexander Mackenzie travelled down north on Dehcho, 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 Tulita (Fort Norman).

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.

1861 Fr. Emile Petitot began his famous murals on the interior walls of the Our Lady of Good Hope, now a national historic site at Fort Good Hope.

1867 After Confederation, Rupert's Land and The North-Western Territory were 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 Northwest Territories, but Manitoba's boundaries were extended north.

1885 Many French-Cree Métis left Manitoba after the Riel uprising to create new lives in the north.

1898 The gold-rich Yukon broke off from the Northwest Territories to become a separate territory, and Quebec expanded northward. Other provinces followed suit over the years, swallowing up parts of the territory as they did so.

1912 The North West Mounted Police established 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 sent the first-ever aircraft to fly Northwest Territories skies to Norman Wells.

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 landmass.

1929 The Thelon Game Sanctuary was created, largely on the recommendation of John Hornby, the eccentric British wanderer who had 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 mounted police and he was 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 started work on a 350-mile pipeline through the Mackenzie Mountains, from Norman Wells to Whitehorse. 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 when the Hudson’s Bay company bowed out.

1967 Yellowknife was named the capital of the Northwest Territories and administration was transferred from Ottawa and Fort Smith.

1979 The 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 signed the Sahtu Land Claim Agreement. Claims by the Gwich'in and the Tlicho have been settled in succeeding years.

1998 North America's first diamond mine, Ekati, went into operation on the Barrens near 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.