Hay River

Town in Fort Smith Region, southern Northwest Territories; population (2006) 3,500. Hay River stands at the mouth of the 560 km/350 mi-long river of the same name, on the southwestern shore of Great Slave Lake, 96 km/60 mi north of the Alberta border.

Hay River was once the home of the Dene, or Slavey, indigenous people, and was an active fur-trading centre before the construction of the Mackenzie Highway (1949) and the railway (1964) made it a commercial fishing and regional transshipment centre, with a port that is open for five months of the year. The lead and zinc mines of Pine Point lie 72 km/45 mi to the east. The Alexandra Falls and Louise Falls, on the river southwest of Enterprise (34 km/21 mi south-southwest), are noted sights.