Yellowknife

Capital of Northwest Territories, Canada, in Yellowknife Bay, on the northern shore of Great Slave Lake; population (2001 est) 16,500. It is the centre of a gold- and uranium-mining region, and the main hub of transport throughout the territories. Yellowknife was founded in 1935 after the discovery of gold in 1934. There are two gold mines inside the city limits, Canada's largest gold mine lies nearby, and diamond mining has developed to the north since 1996. Its name refers to the copper knives used by local Native Canadian Slavey peoples. It became the capital in 1967.

The town was founded on the site of a Hudson's Bay Company trading post that operated from 1789 to 1823. It was first established on an island and rocky peninsula of the lake, and has extended to the adjacent sandy plain, but moved to a new site nearby in 1947. The opening of a hydroelectric power station on Snare Lake in the 1940s aided the development of the town, as did the completion of the Yellowknife Highway in 1960, and in 1970 it became the territory's only city.

Tourism is important to the economy: The Northern Heritage Centre contains exhibits of Native Canadian culture and wildlife, and the Ingraham Trail is a nearby Territorial Park. The restored Wildcat Café in the old town is a UN World Heritage Site, but there are modern buildings too, including the domed legislature.