Pine Point was the townsite built at the Pine Point Mine

Pine Point Mine

The Pine Point Mine is located west of Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories and east of Hay River, Northwest Territories, on the south shore of Great Slave Lake, Northwest Territories. Pine Point was a Mississippi Valley type deposit. It produced lead and zinc ores from 1964 to 1988...

 in the Northwest Territories

Northwest Territories

The Northwest Territories is a federal territory of Canada.Located in northern Canada, the territory borders Canada's two other territories, Yukon to the west and Nunavut to the east, and three provinces: British Columbia to the southwest, and Alberta and Saskatchewan to the south...

, Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, which was an open-pit

Open-pit mining

Open-pit mining or opencast mining refers to a method of extracting rock or minerals from the earth by their removal from an open pit or borrow....

 lead

Lead

Lead is a main-group element in the carbon group with the symbol Pb and atomic number 82. Lead is a soft, malleable poor metal. It is also counted as one of the heavy metals. Metallic lead has a bluish-white color after being freshly cut, but it soon tarnishes to a dull grayish color when exposed...

 and zinc

Zinc

Zinc , or spelter , is a metallic chemical element; it has the symbol Zn and atomic number 30. It is the first element in group 12 of the periodic table. Zinc is, in some respects, chemically similar to magnesium, because its ion is of similar size and its only common oxidation state is +2...

 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 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 as the mine was closing.

The town was served by Northwest Territories Highway 5 and by a railway line owned by Canadian National Railway

Canadian National Railway

The Canadian National Railway Company is a Canadian Class I railway headquartered in Montreal, Quebec. CN's slogan is "North America's Railroad"....

. It also had an airport.

Cominco closed the mine in 1988, forcing the single-industry town to close. All buildings were removed or demolished, and today the site is completely abandoned, although there is still evidence of the street layout.

Pine Point is the subject of a 2011 web documentary

Web documentary

A web documentary, interactive documentary or multimedia documentary is a documentary production that differs from the more traditional forms—video, audio, photographic—by applying a full complement of multimedia tools...

 Welcome to Pine Point

Welcome to Pine Point

Welcome to Pine Point is a 2011 interactive web documentary by Michael Simons and Paul Shoebridge, collectively known as The Goggles, formerly creative directors of Adbusters magazine. The website explores the memories of residents from the former mining community of Pine Point, Northwest...

, created by Michael Simons and Paul Shoebridge and produced by the National Film Board of Canada

National Film Board of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...

. The web documentary includes audiovisual material and mementos compiled by ex-Pine Point resident Richard Cloutier for his own website, Pine Point Revisited.

External links

• Pine Point Revisited
• 1926 Ted Nagle and the Pine Point Discovery NWT Historical Timeline, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre
• NFB - Welcome to Pine Point produced by the National Film Board, created by The Goggles: Paul Shoebridge and Michael Simons