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
Black Lake (Fond du Lac River, Saskatchewan) Black Lake (Fond du Lac River, Saskatchewan) Black Lake is a lake in the Mackenzie River drainage basin in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is about long, wide, has an area of , and lies at an elevation of . The primary inflows are the Chipman River, Cree River, Fond du Lac River, and Souter River; the primary outflow is Fond du Lac River, which flows via the Mackenzie River into the Arctic Ocean. The community of Black Lake is located on the northwest shore of the lake, near where the Fond du Lac River exits. The fish species in the