Boats of the Mackenzie River watershed carrier business in 1947. The last steam-propelled sternwheelers, the "S.S. Distributor" and "S.S. Mackenzie" were retired around the same time. In later years, with the construction of the Mackenzie Highway from Alberta to Great Slave Lake, the importance of the Athabasca-Slave River route dwindled and NTCL operations were based from shipyards in Hay River after 1959. NTCL became the primary water operator in the Mackenzie River watershed with the purchase of Hudson's Bay Company's fleet and equipment in 1958, and the total buyout of Yellowknife Transportation Company in 1965 including its fleet of diesel tug boats. Other small commercial operators
Whitefish River (Northwest Territories) Whitefish River (Northwest Territories) The Whitefish River is a river in the Deline District, Sahtu Region, Northwest Territories, Canada. It is in the Arctic Ocean and Mackenzie River drainage basins, is a tributary of Great Bear Lake and has a watershed of . The river begins at an unnamed lake and flows west then southwest to the west side Man Drowned Himself Lake. It exits the lake at the south, takes in the unnamed left tributary arriving from Kekwinatui Lake, and heads southwest, west and northwest. It passes Whitefish River Airfield on the left bank of the river valley, and