Tuktoyaktuk

Tuktoyaktuk, NWT, incorporated as a hamlet in 1970, population 854 (2011c), 870 (2006c). The Hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk is located on the BEAUFORT SEA coast, east of the MACKENZIE RIVER delta, 1135 air km northwest of YELLOWKNIFE. The area is the traditional home of the whale-hunting Kittegaryumiut INUIT, who diminished owing to a series of epidemics in the late 1800s and early 1900s. The Inuit who settled at the site after it was established by the Hudson's Bay Company as a port of choice (Port Brabant) in mid 1930s were from the immediate area and from other parts of the North. It was given its present name (Inuktitut for "looks like caribou" referring to some rocks that look like caribou) in 1950. The community was the site of a manned DEW Line sub-station and now is the site of a radar station for the North Warning System (see also EARLY-WARNING RADAR).

Today Tuktoyaktuk, commonly referred to as Tuk, has a mostly wage-based economy, as it has grown to be a transportation and government centre and a base for oil and natural gas exploration.

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Links to Other Sites
Tuktoyaktuk
A brief profile of the community of Tuktoyaktuk in the Northwest Territories.