Mackenzie Attractions

Highway 39 branches off to Mackenzie (30 km / 19 mi; 701 m / 2300 ft) at the south end of Lake Williston, an artificial lake which has scarcely been opened up to tourism. Until 1965 the area around the northern Rocky Mountain Trench was still just a wilderness. Since then the town of Mackenzie has grown up, its population here to work in the sawmills and paper factories of the local economic mainstay, the timber industry, although ore deposits have now also been found in the vicinity. At the entrance to the town stands the huge "tree crusher", an enormous, 175-tonne machine, which, when Lake Williston was created, was used to crush the trees which were of no commercial value. Morfee Lake, a nearby resort, has a hydroplane base and swimming, water sports and fishing.