Pine Point, Northwest Territories

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Pine Point, Northwest Territories, Canada.

Pine Point was the townsite built at the Pine Point Mine in the Northwest Territories, Canada, which was an open-pit lead and zinc mine. The first buildings were erected in 1952 during the original exploration and development campaign, and even before that a number of log cabins had been built some ways distance in the late 1920s. The modern town was surveyed in 1962 and became operational by 1963. The town was a joint-venture between the Canadian Government and mine owner's Cominco. It became a territorial settlement in the 1970s with private businesses and boasted a population of 1,200 at its peak. Pine Point had an elementary school (kindergarten to grade 5)--Galena Heights—and a grade 6 to 12 school, called Matonabbee School. The last graduating class was in 1988 because that is when the mine closed, which forced the single-industry town to close. All buildings were removed or demolished, and today the site is completely abandoned.

Nonetheless, memories of the town can be found at a website called Pine Point Revisited.

[edit] Further reading

Andersen Management Services Inc. (1987). Socio-economic impact assessment for the town of Pine Point, NWT. [s.l.]: Andersen Management Services.
Deprez, P. (1973). The Pine Point Mine and the development of the area south of Great Slave Lake. Winnipeg: Center for Settlement Studies, University of Manitoba.
Pine Point Mines Limited. (1978). Zinc/lead mining at Pine Point, N.W.T. Pine Point, N.W.T.: The Mines.
Wilson, J., & Petruk, W. (1985). Quantitative mineralogy of Pine Point tailings. [Ottawa?]: CANMET, Energy, Mines and Resources Canada.