Work continues by Rotary Club of Yellowknife True North on the new bridge which will provide better access to the Back Bay Cemetery, which is a City of Yellowknife heritage site and the final resting for many of the community’s pioneering families.
Also known as the Pioneer Graveyard, the bridge will replace a 20-foot walkway which had to be replaced due to soil conditions. The cemetery is located along the waterfront in Jackfish Draw, adjacent to Back Bay, on Great Slave Lake.
There are some 35 gravesites from 1936-1946. The majority of gravesites in the cemetery are marked by wooden picket fences.
The new bridge will provide a safe and accessible crossing to get to the cemetery, with more protection of the environment and animal habitat the old bridge was interfering with.
Continual erosion has damaged and exposed many graves and the site is always in need of care and maintenance. Rotary Club of Yellowknife True North has worked for many years to clean up the area.
The bridge project has also received support from the City of Yellowknife, several local businesses and community members, including those from the Rotary Club of Yellowknife.
The Rotary Club of Yellowknife has contributed materials and labour to the project and President-Elect Wayne Guy, who provided the photos for this update, contributed the design engineering before the first piers were driven into the creek banks in the summer of 2019.
Construction is expected to be finished and the bridge opened this summer.
(Google map)