New book tries to tell four-billion-year history of Yellowknife

Ryan Silke, a Yellowknife historian and author, is holding a launch for his new book titled Yellowknife! The Story of a Golden City on Saturday at the Yellowknife Historical Museum.

“This is the culmination of a 26-year passion project in researching and writing Yellowknife stories,” said Silke.

He said the book covers topics from evidence of the Earth’s creation and the long history of Indigenous peoples in the area, to the fur trade, mineral and government investments, and aviation lore.

“The book also ponders what’s next for Yellowknife in the absence of natural resources that Yellowknife is so used to being orbited by,” said Silke.

Silke said he was born and raised in Yellowknife “with a great attachment to the land, culture, history, environment, and the community spirit.”

He has worked at museums since he was a teenager and currently works at the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre after spending some time in the mining and tourism industries. He has also volunteered with the Yellowknife Historical Society for many years, assisting the society with creating some of its museum exhibits.

Silke previously wrote High-Grade Tales: Stories from Mining Camps of the Northwest Territories, Canada, a book about the cultural impact of mining on Yellowknife. He said he feels his new book may be his “ultimate project, maybe my penultimate project.”

Work on the book started 26 years ago, Silke said, as he began documenting old buildings, writing articles for Edge North and interviewing old timers and Elders.

Sprinkled throughout the academic history in the book are “vignettes of characters and situations that are ridiculous and humorous at times, and also tragic,” Silke said.

One such story is that of a miner turned baker in the 1930s who made a stove out of an oil drum and clay.

Silke hopes readers will learn a lot from the book and reflect on Yellowknife’s interesting but complicated history.

“Yellowknife will survive no matter what happens next. We’re a very adaptable community,” he said.

The book is also meant to “correct some misinformation as well as maybe bury some mythology around Yellowknife.”

Silke said, for example, some people still believe the name Yellowknife refers to the colour of gold and the sharp tools used to mine it, or copper knives used to open dynamite boxes. The name actually comes from the Indigenous people who used copper from the Arctic to make tools, he said.

The book launch will be held at the Yellowknife Historical Museum from 1 to 5pm on Saturday. The historical society will also hold a 50/50 raffle draw as part of the event.

Silke said the book was made possible thanks to the support of prominent Yellowknife businesses and organizations like the Yellowknife Historical Society, Weaver and Devore, Sutherland’s Drugs, NWT Brewing Company and Quality Furniture.