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Ramshackle NORMAN WELLS (pop. 550) once owed its economic well-being to oil - the local Dene long knew this region as Le Gohlini - "where the oil is". The black gold was first noticed by an outsider as a yellow liquid seeping from the rocks by the explorer Alexander Mackenzie as early as 1789, but only rediscovered in 1919 after Dene locals had led geologists to the same spot. Production began in 1932 and was boosted during World War II when the American government sponsored the building of the Canol Pipeline to supply the Alaska Hwy - now long abandoned, though for a while the town continued to pump about 30,000 barrels a day through a pipeline to Zama, Alberta. At one time 160 wells pushed out 10 million barrels a year from the field. Economic disaster struck the region in 1996, when it was announced the wells and refinery were to close. The only glimmer of hope is that the works and wells are likely to remain intact for a possible new lease of life sometime in the future. You can follow the oil and Canol story in the Norman Wells Historical Centre (summer daily 10am-10pm, but check current opening; tel 587-2415), filled with photographs, modest displays and oddments of memorabilia. Alongside, the settlement's uniquely ecumenical church does double duty: Catholics sit on one side, Protestants on the other. These days the Canol's old route is becoming an increasingly popular long-distance footpath , a tough three- or four-week 372-kilometre wilderness trail from Norman Wells to the Canol Road above Ross River in the Yukon. Logistics are a problem, but if you want one of the world's tougher treks, this one's up there with the toughest. The mountains east of the town contain some of the NWT's bleaker and more spectacular ranges, but good outdoor skills are a must unless you sign up for a tour. As for practicalities , the airport is a twenty-minute walk from the centre of the village, which runs to a bank, post office, a trio of motels, Northern supermarket and plenty of tumbledown housing. The local visitor centre is on the corner of Forestry Road and Mackenzie Drive (tel 587-2054). There are three hotels in town: the Mackenzie Valley Hotel (tel 587-2511; $100-125), the Yamouri Inn (tel 587-2744; $125-175) and the Rayuka Inn (tel 587-2354; $100-125). A touch cheaper is the intermittently open (call first) Log Home B&B , 5km out of town, with a 160-kilometre view from its front porch and weekly and monthly room deals (tel 587-2784; $80-100). If you want to spend time on the river, Mountain River Outfitters (tel 587-2324 or 587-2285) runs day-trips to Fort Good Hope and the Arctic Circle (mid-June to mid-Sept) and also rents canoes and other outdoor equipment. For details of the many fishing-charter companies, enquire locally or obtain the Northwest Territories' Explorers' Guide from Canadian national tourist offices before you leave home. TULITA (pop. 300), formerly known as Fort Norman, some 60km to the south, owes its long history to a strategic position at the junction of the Mackenzie and Great Bear rivers (its Dene name means "where the two rivers meet"). Long a Dene aboriginal settlement, it first acquired a trading post in 1810. Today it's an ethnically mixed community that looks to trapping and fishing for its livelihood: many houses have tepees out back for drying and smoking fish. It boasts just a riverfront mid-nineteenth-century church and old Hudson's Bay Company post as "attractions". Most visitors use the settlement to outfit canoe and boat trips downstream to Norman Wells or the Great Bear Lake, the latter lying 128km away on the easily navigable Great Bear River, a popular canoe trip with one simple portage. The Fort Norman Lodge (tel 588-3320; $125-175) is the only accommodation base; reservations are essential and meals can be arranged.
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