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Tuktoyaktuk
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Tuktoyaktuk
Tuktoyaktuk (/ˌtʌktəˈjæktʌk/ TUK-tə-YAK-tuk; Inuvialuktun: Tuktuyaaqtuuq [təktujaːqtuːq], lit. 'it looks like a caribou') is an Inuvialuit hamlet near the Mackenzie River delta in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, at the northern terminus of the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway. One of six Inuvialuit communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, it is commonly known by its first syllable, Tuk (/tʌk/). It lies north of the Arctic Circle on the Arctic Ocean, and is the only place on the Arctic Ocean connected to the rest of Canada by road. Known as Port Brabant after British colonization, in 1950 it became Canada's first Indigenous settlement to reclaim its traditional name.
Tuktoyaktuk is the anglicized form of the native Inuvialuit place-name, meaning "resembling a caribou". According to legend, a woman looked on as some caribou, common at the site, waded into the water and turned into stone. Today, reefs resembling petrified caribou are said to be visible at low tide along the shore of the town.
No formal archaeological sites exist today, the Inuvialuit have used the settlement for centuries as a place to harvest caribou and beluga whales. Tuktoyaktuk's natural harbour was also historically used to transport supplies to other Inuvialuit settlements.
Between 1890 and 1910, many of Tuktoyaktuk's native families were wiped out in flu epidemics brought in by American whalers. In subsequent years, the Dene people, as well as residents of Herschel Island, settled here. By 1937, the Hudson's Bay Company had established a trading post. On 9 September 1944, a windstorm blew through the community, severely damaged several buildings and schooners docked at the harbour, and killed 11 people en route back from a reindeer station on the Anderson River on the schooner Cally.
Radomes were installed beginning in the 1950s as part of the Distant Early Warning Line, to monitor air traffic and detect possible Soviet intrusions during the Cold War. The settlement's location (and harbour) made Tuk important in resupplying the civilian contractors and Air Force personnel along the DEW Line. In 1947, Tuktoyaktuk became the site of one of the first government day schools, designed to forcibly assimilate Inuit youth into mainstream Canadian culture.
Tuktoyaktuk eventually became a base for the oil and natural gas exploration of the Beaufort Sea. Large industrial buildings remain from the busy period following the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries 1973 oil embargo and 1979 summertime fuel shortage. This brought many more outsiders into the region.
In late 2010, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced that it would undertake an environmental study of a proposed all-weather road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. Work on the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway started on 8 January 2014, and the highway opened on 15 November 2017.
Tuktoyaktuk is on Kugmallit Bay, near the Mackenzie River Delta, and is on the Arctic tree line.
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Tuktoyaktuk
Tuktoyaktuk (/ˌtʌktəˈjæktʌk/ TUK-tə-YAK-tuk; Inuvialuktun: Tuktuyaaqtuuq [təktujaːqtuːq], lit. 'it looks like a caribou') is an Inuvialuit hamlet near the Mackenzie River delta in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada, at the northern terminus of the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway. One of six Inuvialuit communities in the Inuvialuit Settlement Region, it is commonly known by its first syllable, Tuk (/tʌk/). It lies north of the Arctic Circle on the Arctic Ocean, and is the only place on the Arctic Ocean connected to the rest of Canada by road. Known as Port Brabant after British colonization, in 1950 it became Canada's first Indigenous settlement to reclaim its traditional name.
Tuktoyaktuk is the anglicized form of the native Inuvialuit place-name, meaning "resembling a caribou". According to legend, a woman looked on as some caribou, common at the site, waded into the water and turned into stone. Today, reefs resembling petrified caribou are said to be visible at low tide along the shore of the town.
No formal archaeological sites exist today, the Inuvialuit have used the settlement for centuries as a place to harvest caribou and beluga whales. Tuktoyaktuk's natural harbour was also historically used to transport supplies to other Inuvialuit settlements.
Between 1890 and 1910, many of Tuktoyaktuk's native families were wiped out in flu epidemics brought in by American whalers. In subsequent years, the Dene people, as well as residents of Herschel Island, settled here. By 1937, the Hudson's Bay Company had established a trading post. On 9 September 1944, a windstorm blew through the community, severely damaged several buildings and schooners docked at the harbour, and killed 11 people en route back from a reindeer station on the Anderson River on the schooner Cally.
Radomes were installed beginning in the 1950s as part of the Distant Early Warning Line, to monitor air traffic and detect possible Soviet intrusions during the Cold War. The settlement's location (and harbour) made Tuk important in resupplying the civilian contractors and Air Force personnel along the DEW Line. In 1947, Tuktoyaktuk became the site of one of the first government day schools, designed to forcibly assimilate Inuit youth into mainstream Canadian culture.
Tuktoyaktuk eventually became a base for the oil and natural gas exploration of the Beaufort Sea. Large industrial buildings remain from the busy period following the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries 1973 oil embargo and 1979 summertime fuel shortage. This brought many more outsiders into the region.
In late 2010, the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency announced that it would undertake an environmental study of a proposed all-weather road between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. Work on the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway started on 8 January 2014, and the highway opened on 15 November 2017.
Tuktoyaktuk is on Kugmallit Bay, near the Mackenzie River Delta, and is on the Arctic tree line.
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