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
Rapid River (Cree River tributary) flow via the Cree River, the Fond du Lac River and the Mackenzie River to the Arctic Ocean. Rapid River (Cree River tributary) The Rapid River is a river in northern Saskatchewan, Canada. It is part of the Mackenzie River drainage basin. The Rapid River begins at an unnamed lake at an elevation of . It travels north to Kirsch Lake at an elevation of , where it takes in several unnamed tributaries, including one from the left arriving from Halliday Lake. The river continues to Parker Lake at an elevation of where it takes in the left tributary Arnold