A “WHAT IF” History of Yellowknife
Ryan Silke
Yellowknife Historian
Yellowknife Historical Society
From rocks to riches…Yellowknife’s success has been in part thanks to the minerals beneath our feet. But what if the gold credited with kick-starting the community back in 1934 never existed? What if the city lost its bid to become capital of the NWT in 1967? What if the diamond deposits that have sustained our economy for the past twenty years were never found? This unconventional talk looks at the keystone events in Yellowknife’s history and then discusses the consequences on the community if they did not happen. Presented in support of the Yellowknife Historical Society’s community museum project at Giant Mine.
Biography
Historian Ryan Silke was born and raised in Yellowknife. He has spent most of his adult life exploring the north for material remains of human activity on the landscape, documenting old mines and prospecting camps, and abandoned settler and indigenous communities. A founding member of the Yellowknife Historical Society, Silke now works as a curatorial assistant at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre. He has published several books on local Yellowknife history.
Everyone is Welcome!
7:30pm Wednesday 21 November 2018
Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
Public Lecture Sponsored by Northwest Territories and Nunavut Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists (NAPEG).