Dempster Highway

The Dempster Highway (Northbound), Yukon and Northwest Territories Canada - Summer 2008

ALL Photos © K. Dewey, School of Natural Resources, Applied Climate Sciences, UNL.

Photo Set Three

	Fort McPherson (Gwich'in language: Teet'lit Zhen {at the head of the waters}) is a hamlet located in the Northwest Territories and is located on the east bank of the Peel River and is 121 km (75 mi) south of Inuvik on the Dempster Highway. Population is 776 according to the 2006 Census. It is the largest settlement along the Dempster Highway until Inuvik. The two principal languages spoken are Gwich'in and English. Fort McPherson is accessible by road all year from Dawson City and Whitehorse, Yukon, with the exception of spring break-up and fall freeze-up on the Peel River. The Gwich’in people of Fort McPherson are very welcoming of strangers and go out of their way to make them welcome. Originally the site of a Hudson's Bay Company post the community was named for "Murdoch McPherson"..


Structures in Fort McPherson are built on stilts (poles) to keep the building from heating the ground and melting the permafrost.	Here a home is ready to be built. Note the brown poles which will elevate the home above the ground.

Another Fort McPherson home on stilts	Another Fort McPherson home on stilts

Another Fort McPherson home on stilts	Another Fort McPherson home on stilts

A Fort McPherson building site. Note the thick gravel pad and the brown poles where the home will be built.	This the Peel River Inn and gas station. Note that this hotel is also built on stilts to avoid heating the underlying ground.

The 2nd and largest ferry crossing is south of Inuvik on the Mackenzie Red River. Note the ferry in the distance. Click HERE for a map of this river crossing	The river is an ice road crossing in the winter and ferry in the summer. It cannot be crossed during ice breakup and freeze up


Note the large truck that can be accommodated on the ferry	During Summer and Winter this is the life line for supplies in Inuvik

Summer is road repair time and a constant hazard along the route	Large trucks and flying rocks are the other hazard
	The end of the road -- Inuvik, Northwest Territories. Population 3,485. And, 3,562 miles from Lincoln, NE Lincoln, Nebraska to Winnipeg, Manitoba = 691 miles. Winnipeg, Manitoba to Inuvik Northwest Territories = 2,840 miles Inuvik is 340 miles north of the Arctic Circle!