and The Fort Liard

A little bit about the place, Fort Liard is positioned on the confluence of two rivers The Liard and the smaller Petiot River and has a population of just over 500. It was original settled as a trading post for fur traders. A small community grew up around the Catholic Church, but it has only been in the last 40 years that the Hamlet has taken its current form, as First nations began to settle more permanently into the hamlet. Most of the local people refer to Fort Liard as being in the tropical part of the Northwest Territories and generally receives warmer conditions than many other locations.  Still going to be -26 next week though!

Fort Laird is a mere 40km from the British Colombia boarder and the nearest large settlement Fort Nelson (pop5000ish) is 220km away and on the Alaskan Highway, this is where we do our food shopping when we get the chance of a lift. Going in the opposite direction is Fort Simpson (pop1000ish) which is around 31/2 hours away. Not sure that you can drive there at the moment as it requires crossing a river or maybe two and I think that the rivers are two icy for the boats but not icy enough to drive over.  The capital of the NT is Yellowknife which is around 8 hours away, and Edmonton I think is around 1500km.

In the Hamlet there are two shops (Northern and the general), a gas station, small motel, native craft shop and a takeaway burger Van. The Hamlet also has a recreational centre that has a large hall which is used for a youth centre most days and for most community events, it also has a swimming pool in the summer and a hockey rink in the winter. There is a school of around 100+ students and a pre-school, at the school there is also a large Gym where I run some of my evening activities such as Archery, Girls Soccer and Badminton.