Yukon Highway 5 Northwest Territories Highway 8 | ||||
Route information | ||||
Maintained by Department of Highways and Public Works | ||||
Length | 737.5 km (458.3 mi) YT-5: 465 km (289 mi) NWT-8: 271 km (168 mi) | |||
Major junctions | ||||
South end | Hwy 2 (Klondike Highway) near Dawson City, YT | |||
North end | Highway 10 (Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway), Inuvik, NT | |||
Location | ||||
Country | Canada | |||
Province | Yukon | |||
Highway system | ||||
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The Dempster Highway, also referred to as Yukon Highway 5 and Northwest Territories Highway 8, is a highway in Canada that connects the Klondike Highway in Yukon to Inuvik, Northwest Territories on the Mackenzie River delta. The highway crosses the Peel and the Mackenzie rivers using a combination of seasonal ferry services and ice bridges. Year-round road access from Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk opened in November 2017, with the completion of the Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway, [1] creating the first all-weather road route connecting the Canadian road network with the Arctic Ocean.
The highway is named for North-West Mounted Police (NWMP) officer William Dempster, who earned renown for discovering the fate of a lost NWMP patrol in 1911.
The highway begins 40 km (25 mi) east of Dawson City, Yukon on the Klondike Highway. There are no highway or major road intersections along the highway's route. It extends 736 km (457 mi) in a north-northeasterly direction to Inuvik, Northwest Territories, passing through Tombstone Territorial Park and crossing the Ogilvie and Richardson mountain ranges.
The Dempster Highway roughly follows the old dog sled route from Dawson City to Fort McPherson and is named for Corporal (later Inspector) William Dempster of the North-West Mounted Police. [2]
During the late 19th century, and in response to the Klondike Gold Rush, the North-West Mounted Police established a presence in the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Their activities included winter dog sled patrols between outposts and communities. One such patrol followed a route from Dawson City to the NWMP outpost at Fort McPherson, established in 1903.
In December 1910, NWMP Inspector Francis Joseph Fitzgerald led three men on the annual winter patrol from Fort McPherson to Dawson City. They became lost on the trail, and subsequently died of exposure and starvation. When they failed to arrive in Dawson City as expected, Corporal Dempster and two constables were sent out on a rescue patrol in March 1911. Dempster and his men found the bodies of Fitzgerald's patrol on March 22, 1911. [3]
In 1958, as oil and gas exploration were expanding in the Mackenzie Delta, the Canadian government decided to build a road from Dawson City in Yukon to Aklavik in the Northwest Territories. The road was intended as an overland, year-round supply link to southern Canada. [4] Survey work began in 1958. [5]
With the August, 1959, discovery of oil in the Eagle Plains area, the government granted concessions to the oil industry to stimulate more exploration in the area. This provided more motivation for a road to transport equipment, infrastructure, and revenue to and from the sites. [4] Construction of the road, then known as Yukon Territorial Road No. 11, began at Dawson City in January 1959. [6] The northern terminus of the road was changed to the new town of Inuvik. Due to high costs and ongoing funding disagreements between the federal and Yukon governments, progress was slow until 1961. Once the Eagle Plains oil discovery was found to have no commercial potential, construction stopped in 1962 after 115 km (71 mi) of roadbed had been built. [4]
Seasonal maintenance of the existing road continued but no further work was done. In 1964, the road was renamed the Dempster Highway, after petitions by Vancouver Yukoners Association and the Yukon Order of Pioneers. [5] Construction resumed in 1970 as the Canadian government sought to assert sovereignty over their Arctic territories after the American discovery of oil and gas deposits at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska in 1968. Work was further motivated by speculation that an oil pipeline might be built in the Mackenzie Valley.
At the time of its construction, the highway was the most northerly major road project to date. Weather and daylight conditions presented challenges. In 1979, a work crew was trapped in a blizzard in the Richardson Mountains and was almost lost. [5] Construction had to account for the permafrost; heat transfer from the highway to the ground had to be prevented so the permafrost would not melt. To address this, the road was built on top of a gravel berm, ranging from 1.2 to 2.4 m (3 ft 11 in to 7 ft 10 in), to insulate the permafrost from the road above. [4] Some construction was completed by the Canadian Forces; 3 Field Squadron, RCE from CFB Chilliwack built bridges over the Ogilvie River in 1971 [7] and the Eagle River in 1977. [8]
The final section of road was completed in 1978, at a cost of $132 million. [5] The highway was officially opened on August 18, 1979, at Flat Creek, Yukon. [6]
Territory | Region | Location | km [9] | mi | Destinations | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Yukon | unorganized | | 0 | 0.0 | Hwy 2 (Klondike Highway) – Dawson City, Whitehorse | |
82 | 51 | North Fork Pass – 1,289 m (4,229 ft) | Highest point on the Dempster Highway | |||
Eagle Plains | 369 | 229 | First available services | |||
| 391 | 243 | Wiley Aerodrome | Uses a portion of the highway as its runway. | ||
405 | 252 | Arctic Circle | ||||
Yukon – Northwest Territories border | 465 | 289 | Hwy 5 northern terminus • Highway 8 southern terminus One hour time change (summer only) | |||
Northwest Territories | Inuvik | | 539 | 335 | Crosses the Peel River MV Abraham Francis (June to October) • Ice bridge (late November to April) [10] | |
Fort McPherson | 550 | 340 | Second and last available services | |||
Tsiigehtchic | 608 | 378 | Crosses the Mackenzie River MV Louis Cardinal (June to October) • Ice bridge (late November to April) [10] | |||
Inuvik | 736 | 457 | Highway 10 north (Inuvik–Tuktoyaktuk Highway) – Tuktoyaktuk | |||
1.000 mi = 1.609 km; 1.000 km = 0.621 mi
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Yukon is the smallest and westernmost of Canada's three territories. It is the most densely populated territory in Canada, with an estimated population of 46,704 as of 2024, though it has a smaller population than all provinces. Whitehorse, the territorial capital, is the largest settlement in any of the three territories.
Inuvik is the only town in the Inuvik Region, and the third largest community in Canada's Northwest Territories. Located in what is sometimes called the Beaufort Delta Region, it serves as its administrative and service centre and is home to federal, territorial, and Indigenous government offices, along with the regional hospital and airport.
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Tuktoyaktuk is an Inuvialuit hamlet located 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 referred to by its first syllable, Tuk. It lies north of the Arctic Circle on the shores of 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 the first Indigenous settlement in Canada to reclaim its traditional name.
Tsiigehtchic, officially the Hamlet of Tsiigehtchic, is a Gwich'in community located at the confluence of the Mackenzie and the Arctic Red Rivers, in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. The community was formerly known as Arctic Red River, until 1 April 1994. The Gwichya Gwich'in First Nation is located in Tsiigehtchic.
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Fort McPherson is a hamlet located in the Inuvik Region of the Northwest Territories, Canada. It is located on the east bank of the Peel River and is 121 km (75 mi) south of Inuvik on the Dempster Highway.
The history of the Yukon covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians through the Beringia land bridge approximately 20,000 years ago. In the 18th century, Russian explorers began to trade with the First Nations people along the Alaskan coast, and later established trade networks extending into Yukon. By the 19th century, traders from the Hudson's Bay Company were also active in the region. The region was administered as a part of the North-Western Territory until 1870, when the United Kingdom transferred the territory to Canada and it became the North-West Territories.
Tuktoyaktuk Winter Road, an extension of the Dempster Highway, was an ice road on frozen Mackenzie River delta channels and the frozen Arctic Ocean between the Northwest Territories communities of Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk, in Canada. The road closed permanently on 29 April 2017 at the end of the 2016-2017 winter season. Construction of an all-season highway between Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk commenced in April 2013; it opened on 15 November 2017.
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