Thoughts From a "Lost Canadian" On the Unique Things About Northwest Territories

Since the middle of April when I learned I am a "Lost Canadian", it matters to me to know all I can about Canada. While I have learned many things,  there clearly are a great many things I still do not know and have yet to learn. Today I'm sharing some of the unique things I've learned online about the Northwest Territories . . .

The Northwest Territories in Canada feature unique wonders like the Nahanni National Park Reserve, featuring a massive waterfall twice as tall as Niagara, and Yellowknife, a top global spot to view the colorful northern lights. 

Nature and Land

Tuktut Nogait National Park: Deep canyons and herds of wild caribou.
Great Bear Lake: One of the biggest and coldest clear lakes on Earth.
Pingo Canadian Landmark: Ice hills that rise high out of the flat tundra near Tuktoyaktuk.
Official gemstone: The diamond was adopted as the official gemstone of the Northwest Territories in 1999, to recognize it is home to Canada’s first diamond mine, making Canada the world’s third-largest diamond producer.
Glittering Mineral: Historically, gold has played a major role in the development and prosperity of the area. 
Incredible Waterfall: With a surface area of four acres and a flow-rate of three billion cubic feet per day, Virginia Falls, or Náilicho, could fill an Olympic-sized swimming pool in 2.5 seconds and is considered to be the greatest wilderness waterfall on Earth.
Trophy-sized Lake Trout: they grow to the size of a 10-year-old child, and are significantly ferocious. Dene fishermen have netted leviathans which approach 90 pounds.
Largest Land Animal: The Northwest Territories’ signature beast is the mountain-sized wood bison. Bigger and darker than  the plains bison, they can stand six feet tall at the shoulder and tip the scales at a metric tonne. This makes them the largest land animal in the Western Hemisphere.
The most endangered bird species in all of North America: but in the marshlands near Fort Smith, the elusive whooping crane has begun to rebound. Once numbering fewer than two-dozen, the world’s whooping crane population is now approaching 500.
Part Grizzly Bear, Part Polar Bear: nanulak, grolar bear, pizzly, p-grizzle, it’s the product of intermating between polar bear mamas and male brown bears which are spreading north due to climate change.
The Oldest Thing on Planet Earth: Cropping up from a mid-river island north of Wekweeti, right at the cusp of the Barrenlands, is a mound of stone from the Earth’s beginnings. At more than 4 billion years old, the Acasta Gneiss is the most ancient exposed rock ever found. It is literally the oldest.

Culture and History

Official Languages: The territory recognizes eleven different languages, including nine Indigenous tongues.
Midnight Sun: Summer brings nearly 24 hours of bright daylight for months.
Ice Roads: Trucks drive across frozen rivers and lakes when winter arrives. 
The Name Northwest Territories Tells it All: it is primarily descriptive of the location of the Territories.
First Nations First Peoples: The Northwest Territories were inhabited by Inuit and First Nations peoples long before the Europeans arrived in search of the elusive Northwest Passage.
Language of Origin: Some nations in the area spoke a form of the Athapaskan language, the only native language in North America to have traces of an Asiatic origin.
The First: The first European explorers were the Vikings, who sailed to the Eastern Arctic about 1000 AD. 
The Biggest One Became Two: In April 1999, the Northwest Territories was divided in two, with 60 percent of the land being transferred to the new territory of Nunavut in Canada’s Eastern Arctic.

There is SO much more to know, discover, and most certainly love about the Northwest Territories, Canada, and you will find much of it at this link and this link. (Images from Canada.ca)