Mayo is a village in

Yukon Yukon () is a Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada, bordering British Columbia to the south, the Northwest Territories to the east, the Beaufort Sea to the north, and the U.S. state of Alaska to the west. It is Canada’s we ...

, Canada, along the Silver Trail and the Stewart River. It had a population of 200 in 2016. The Yukon Bureau of Statistics estimated a population of 496 in 2019. It is also the home of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, whose people primarily speak the northern variety of the

Tutchone language Tutchone is an Athabaskan language spoken by the Northern and Southern Tutchone First Nations in central and southern regions of Yukon Territory, Canada. Tutchone belongs to the Northern Athabaskan linguistic subfamily and has two primary var ...

. ''Na-Cho Nyäk Dun'' translates into "big river people." The community, formerly called Mayo Landing, is serviced by Mayo Airport. The village was named after former circus acrobat turned settler and explorer Alfred Mayo. Its only school is the J.V. Clark School, which is named after James Vincent Clark (1924–1994). As of December 2022 the school had 46 students with 34 in primary and 12 in secondary grades. As of the 2023 - 2024 school year the principal is Douglas Cooper.

History

Before Europeans came there were in the area two communities of the Na-cho Nyäk Dun people, who lived by hunting and trapping. The river now known as the Stewart River was known as the "Náhcho Nyäk" ('Great River'). The people lived across the Stewart River from the main focus of today's Mayo, in a district today called "Old Mayo village". The old settlement was reinstated on the initiative of a missionary, but in 1936 the river burst its banks and flattened much of the old village, destroying the church and many cultural treasures. The first gold discoveries in the area were made in the 1880s: silver was also discovered some time later. Until the middle of the 20th century Mayo was only connected with the outside world by the river and received any supplies by boat. In the 1950s the construction of the Klondike Highway and the Silver Trail provided Mayo with a road link to Stewart Crossing. Between 1973 and 1984 negotiation took place between the government and Northern Tutchone leaders over land rights and self-government. A breakthrough came only in 1993 with a treaty between the residents and the lawmakers concerning an area of and a payment, over fifteen years, totalling C$14.5 million. Together with the Trʼondëk Hwëchʼin First Nation an agreement has been made with Yukon Energy to supply electricity to

Dawson City Dawson City is a town in the Canadian territory of Yukon. It is inseparably linked to the Klondike Gold Rush (1896–1899). Its population was 1,577 as of the 2021 census, making it the second-largest municipality in Yukon. History Prior t ...

using the Mayo-Dawson Power Line. May 2008 saw a preliminary agreement with Alexco Resource Corp concerning silver extraction in the Keno Hill Silver area near the far end of Mayo Lake (approximately northeast of the village) where the corporation operates approximately 40 silver mines.'No cloud' over mining plans after Alexco, Yukon First Nation sign deal, in: CBC News, 26 May 2008
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Demographics

In the

2021 Canadian census The 2021 Canadian census was a detailed enumeration of the Canada, Canadian population with a reference date of May 11, 2021. It follows the 2016 Canadian census, which recorded a population of 35,151,728. The overall response rate was 98%, whic ...

conducted by

Statistics Canada Statistics Canada (StatCan; ), formed in 1971, is the agency of the Government of Canada commissioned with producing statistics to help better understand Canada, its population, resources, economy, society, and culture. It is headquartered in ...

, Mayo had a population of 188 living in 108 of its 149 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 200. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021.

Geography

Climate

Mayo has a

subarctic climate The subarctic climate (also called subpolar climate, or boreal climate) is a continental climate with long, cold (often very cold) winters, and short, warm to cool summers. It is found on large landmasses, often away from the moderating effects of ...

(

Köppen Köppen is a German surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Bernd Köppen (1951–2014), German pianist and composer * Carl Köppen (1833-1907), German military advisor in Meiji era Japan * Edlef Köppen (1893–1939), German author ...

: Dfc), with generally warm summers and severely cold winters lasting half the year. Spring and autumn are very short transitional seasons between summer and winter, with average temperatures rising and falling very fast during these times. The temperature difference between the record low in February () and the record high in June () is (), one of the largest temperature differentials ever recorded. It has some of the warmest summers in the Yukon with a mean average summer temperature of .

References

External links