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Amid the droning bush planes and picturesque houseboats of Yellowknife's Old Town, it's still possible to detect a palpable frontier spirit. It's as if you're standing on the edge of a large, undiscovered and barely comprehensible wilderness – and you are. Draw a line north from Yellowknife to the Arctic Ocean and you won't cross a single road.
Friendly, subarctic Yellowknife supports 50% of the NWT population and is a blend of Dene and Métis from across the territory; Inuit and Inuvialuit from further north; grizzled non-Aboriginal pioneers; get-rich-quick newcomers from southern Canada; and a sizable selection of more recent immigrants from different parts of the world.
Named Somba K'e (Place of Money) in the local Tlicho language, the city, a mining hub, has been territorial capital since 1967.