Hay River

History

The area has been in use by First Nations, known as the Long Spear people, as far back as 7000 BC. A school, health centre and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police followed, and as part of the Canol Road project the United States Army Corps of Engineers built a runway on Vale Island in the Hay River delta. In 1948 the Government of Canada built a gravel road, now the Mackenzie Highway, from Grimshaw, Alberta to Hay River, making it the first community in the NWT to be linked with southern Canada. In 1959, the Northern Transportation Company Limited located their main base in Hay River and over the years developed the facilities. Today the base is the major staging point for the annual sealift along the Mackenzie River, via Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk and the communities of the Arctic Ocean, as far east as Taloyoak, Nunavut and west to Utqiagvik, Alaska. In 1963, Vale Island, the historical location of the town, was severely flooded. As a response, the town was moved to the new location upstream. By 1964, as part of the Pine Point Mine development, the Mackenzie Northern Railway was constructed. Ice jams built up in two channels, and combined with a wide-ranging storm system, and already waterlogged ground resulted in a larger than normal flood. Hay River also flooded in 1963, On 25 August 2023 the entire town population was ordered to evacuate by the government of the Northwest Territories due to the 2023 Canadian wildfires.

Most-observed species

• Common Raven

  Corvus corax Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  512
• Black-billed Magpie

  Pica hudsonia (Sabine, 1823) · Aves
  489
• Ring-billed Gull

  Larus delawarensis Ord, 1815 · Aves
  290
• Black-capped Chickadee

  Poecile atricapillus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  286
• American Robin

  Turdus migratorius Linnaeus, 1766 · Aves
  278
• Bald Eagle

  Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766) · Aves
  252
• American Crow

  Corvus brachyrhynchos C.L.Brehm, 1822 · Aves
  247
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  225