Fort Chipewyan , commonly referred to as Fort Chip, is an unincorporated

hamlet ''The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark'', often shortened to ''Hamlet'' (), is a Shakespearean tragedy, tragedy written by William Shakespeare sometime between 1599 and 1601. It is Shakespeare's longest play. Set in Denmark, the play (the ...

northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the ce ...

, Canada, within the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo.

History

Fort Chipewyan is one of the oldest European settlements in the Province of

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. It was established as a trading post of the

North West Company The North West Company was a Fur trade in Canada, Canadian fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in the regions that later became Western Canada a ...

in 1788, named after the

Chipewyan people The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene group of Indigenous peoples in Canada, Indigenous Canadian people belonging to the Athabaskan l ...

living in the area. Its original location was Old Fort Point, on the southwest shore west of the Old Fort River. One of the founders of the fort, Roderick Mackenzie of Terrebonne, had a taste for literature. Later he opened correspondence with traders all over the north and west, asking for descriptions of scenery, adventure, folklore and history. He also founded a library at the fort that was not only for the residents of Fort Chipewyan, but also for traders and clerks of the whole Lake Athabasca region. He hoped it would be what he called, in an imaginative and somewhat jocular vein, "the little

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

of the

Arctic The Arctic (; . ) is the polar regions of Earth, polar region of Earth that surrounds the North Pole, lying within the Arctic Circle. The Arctic region, from the IERS Reference Meridian travelling east, consists of parts of northern Norway ( ...

regions." This library, started in 1790, held more than 2000 books.Ft. Chipewyan Bicentennial Museum, 2013, It became one of the most famous in the whole extent of

Rupert's Land Rupert's Land (), or Prince Rupert's Land (), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin. The right to "sole trade and commerce" over Rupert's Land was granted to Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), based a ...

. In 1798, Fort Chipewyan was relocated to its current site on the north shore. In 1802, the HBC set up another post on English Island at the lake's outlet, called Nottingham House, but was abandoned in 1806. From about 1815 to 1821 the

Hudson's Bay Company The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...

(HBC) operated a competing Fort Wedderburn (named after Andrew Colvile's family) on Coal or Potato Island from the North West Company's fort. This fort was established by John Clarke, and Sir George Simpson stayed here 1820–1821, during which time he reorganized the fur trade. When the HBC and NWC merged in 1821, Fort Wedderburn was abandoned and all HBC's fur-trade operations moved to Fort Chipewyan. Sir

John Franklin Sir John Franklin (16 April 1786 – 11 June 1847) was a British Royal Navy officer, explorer and colonial administrator. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812, he led two expeditions into the Northern Canada, Canadia ...

set out from Fort Chipewyan on his overland Arctic journey in 1820. In 1887–1888 there was a great famine in the Fort Chipewan area. Electricity and electric lights arrived in Fort Chipewyan in 1959. In 2023 about a thousand people were evacuated from the centre due to threat by a wildfir

Historic sites

Old Fort Point, the site of the first Fort Chipewyan, established southeast of Fort Chipewyan in 1788, was designated a List of National Historic Sites of Canada in Alberta, National Historic Site of Canada in 1930. Historic places in the community include the site of the third Fort Chipewyan established in 1803, the Anglican Church built in 1880 and Day School built in 1874, and the Roman Catholic Mission Church built in 1909.

Geography

It is located on the western tip of

Lake Athabasca Lake Athabasca ( ; French: ''lac Athabasca''; from Woods Cree: , " herethere are plants one after another") is in the north-west corner of Saskatchewan and the north-east corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N in Canada. The lake is ...

, adjacent to Wood Buffalo National Park, approximately north of

Fort McMurray Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significa ...

Climate

Fort Chipewyan 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 long, very cold, dry winters and short, warm, wetter summers. The highest temperature ever recorded in Fort Chipewyan was on 30 June 2021. The coldest temperature ever recorded was on 1 February 1917.

Demographics

In the 2021 Census of Population 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 ...

, Fort Chipewyan had a population of 798 living in 309 of its 387 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2016 population of 852. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2021. The population of Fort Chipewyan according to the 2018 municipal census conducted by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is 918, a decrease from its 2012 municipal census population count of 1,008. As a designated place in the 2016 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Fort Chipewyan had a population of 852 living in 295 of its 372 total private dwellings, a change of from its 2011 population of 847. With a land area of , it had a population density of in 2016. The hamlet's population is predominantly made up of

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

and

Chipewyan The Chipewyan ( , also called ''Denésoliné'' or ''Dënesųłı̨né'' or ''Dënë Sųłınë́'', meaning "the original/real people") are a Dene group of Indigenous Canadian people belonging to the Athabaskan language family, whose ancest ...

(

Dene The Dene people () are an Indigenous group of First Nations who inhabit the northern boreal, subarctic and Arctic regions of Canada. The Dene speak Northern Athabaskan languages and it is the common Athabaskan word for "people". The term ...

) First Nations and

Métis people The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They hav ...

Transportation

Air

The hamlet is served by the Fort Chipewyan Airport, opened on June 18, 1966. Air is one of two methods of access to Fort Chipewyan in the summer.

Water

In the summer, the hamlet also can be accessed by boat from Fort McMurray via the

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') in Alberta, Canada, originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is protected in nationa ...

Road

There are no all-weather roads to Fort Chipewyan, but it can be reached via

winter road A winter road is a seasonal road only usable during the winter, i.e. it has to be re-built every year. This road typically runs over land and over frozen lakes, rivers, swamps, and sea ice. Segments of a winter road that cross an expanse of flo ...

s in the winter. These include roads from Fort Smith to the north and from Fort McMurray to the south. In June 1998, and as part of the Northwestern Canadian Integrated Road Network Plan, the Alberta government conducted studies on all-weather road access by extending the existing Highway 63 from Fort McMurray. As of 2008 Highway 63 has been extended from Fort McMurray to Syncrude; there are currently no plans on extending it further to Fort Chipewyan. In December 2005, one-third of Fort Chipewyan's residents signed a petition to request the government to build a all-weather road to connect with existing roads to the northwest that provide access to Fort Smith,

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

. The major expenditure would be a bridge over the Slave River.

Solar energy

In September 2014, the community of Fort Chipewyan in collaboration with Keepers of the Athabasca installed a 1.8 kW solar array on the roof of the Elder Lodge to be used for emergency backup power. An energy baseline study was completed for Fort Chipewyan by the Pembina Institute in 2012. The table below shows the mean daily global insolation (kWh/m²) in Fort Chipewyan for each month of the year using five different fixed solar array orientations and one which tracks the sun. The data was provided by

Natural Resources Canada Natural Resources Canada (NRCan; ; )Natural Resources Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of Natural Resources (). is the department of the Government of Canada responsible for natural r ...

's Municipality database of photovoltaic potential and insolation which used data collected over 50 years from 144 locations compiled from Environment Canada's CERES CD.

Fort Chipewyan Solar Farm

The Fort Chipewyan Solar Farm was developed by Three Nations Energy LP, and constructed in 2019 through 2020. ATCO was the designer and builder, and operates the system. The Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation, and Fort Chipewyan Métis Local 125 own the project. The solar farm is expected to supply approximately 25 percent of Fort Chipewyan's energy and annually replace 800,000 litres of diesel fuel. A battery storage system will store 1.5 MWh of power. Phase 1 was planned to include 1,500 panels (400 kW) but was reported at the project completion as a 600 kW facility, while phase 2 was planned include 6,000 panels and was reported at the project completion to include 5,760 panels with the planned output of 2,200 kW. The Government of Canada provided $4.5M and the Government of Alberta provided $3.3M of the project's $7.8M cost. ATCO will buy the solar farm's energy under a long-term purchase agreement and supply it to the local power grid, which is disconnected from the province-wide grid. ATCO stated that with the completion of the 2.2 MW-capacity project, about 25 fewer tanker trucks will trek across the winter ice road connecting the community with Fort McMurray, 220 kilometres to the south. In the summer, the community is only accessible by air or barge.

References

Notes

External links

Fort Chipewyan
Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo
Fort Chipewyan National Historic Site of Canada
{{Authority control Hamlets in Alberta National Historic Sites in Alberta North West Company forts Designated places in Alberta Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo Hudson's Bay Company forts Forts or trading posts on the National Historic Sites of Canada register 1788 establishments in the British Empire Lake Athabasca