Mackenzie District

Mackenzie District forms the western section of Canada's Northwest Territories, a vast expanse covering 1.5 million sq. km (579,000 sq. mi.) and bounded by Yukon Territory in the west, the continental coastline in the north, 120° longitude W in the east, and 60° latitude N in the south, with a population numbered only in several tens of thousands. Just on half of it is in the Arctic, and the forested sub-Arctic section of the district is home to a few thousand Indians.

The Mackenzie Mountains in the north-west of the district are a spur of the Cordilleras, while the eastern section of this vast District is part of the Pre-Cambrian Canadian Shield. At its heart, however, is the alluvial valley of the Mackenzie River and the delta of this mighty north American river. Economy

In the 19th c. trade came from the few trappers and fishermen who lived here from time to time but in the first half of the 20th c. the forests in the Mackenzie Valley attracted the attention of the paper industry. This was followed by the discovery of oil at Norman Wells in the 1920s, pitchblende at Port Radium and gold at Yellowknife in the 1930s, with mining becoming a thriving industry after the Second World War.