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Fort Chipewyan, Alberta

Fort Chipewyan
Hamlet
Aerial view of Fort Chipewyan
Aerial view of Fort Chipewyan
Fort Chipewyan is located in Alberta
Fort Chipewyan
Fort Chipewyan
Location of Fort Chipewyan in Alberta
Coordinates: 58°42′52″N 111°09′30″W / 58.7144°N 111.1583°W / 58.7144; -111.1583
Country  Canada
Province  Alberta
Region Northern Alberta
Census division 16
Specialized municipality RM of Wood Buffalo
Settled 1788
Government
 • Type Unincorporated
 • Mayor Melissa Blake
 • Governing body
Area (2011)
 • Total 10.23 km2 (3.95 sq mi)
Elevation 221 m (725 ft)
Population (2011)
 • Total 847
Time zone MST (UTC−7)
 • Summer (DST) MDT (UTC−6)
Postal code T9K
Area code(s) +1-780
Climate Dfc

Fort Chipewyan /ˈɪpəwən, -pw-/, commonly referred to as Fort Chip, is a hamlet in northern Alberta, Canada, within the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo. It is located on the western tip of Lake Athabasca, adjacent to Wood Buffalo National Park, approximately 223 kilometres (139 mi) north of Fort McMurray.

Fort Chipewyan is one of the oldest European settlements in the Province of Alberta. It was established as a trading post by Peter Pond of the North West Company in 1788. The fort was named after the Chipewyan people living in the area.

One of the establishers of the fort, Roderick Mackenzie of Terrebonne, always had a taste for literature, as was seen years later when he opened correspondence with traders all over the north and west, asking for descriptions of scenery, adventure, folklore and history. He also had in view the founding of a library at the fort, which would not be only for the immediate residents of Fort Chipewyan, but for traders and clerks of the whole region tributary to Lake Athabasca, so that it would be what he called, in an imaginative and somewhat jocular vein, "the little Athens of the Arctic regions." This library, built in 1790, held over 2000 books, and became one of the most famous in the whole extent of Rupert's Land.


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