TETLIT'ZHEH/FORT MCPHERSON - For many visitors to the North, the first person they meet in the NWT is Robert Alexie Sr.

The Fort McPherson elder works at the Robert D. Charlie Visitors Centre, located just past the Peel River ferry.

Robert Alexie spends his summer days welcoming visitors to the NWT. The Robert D. Charlie Visitors Centre has several displays about traditional life in the North. - Brodie Thomas/NNSL photo

Alexie's office is a log cabin with lots of couches and chairs. He often sits and chats with visitors.

"The tourists, they don't know what it used to be like," he said. "They're up here just looking at the North. I tell them, remember you're up in the Arctic, watch for polar bears."

On his wall are pictures of polar and black bears.

Alexie also has a collection of personal pictures he keeps on his desk. They are black and white photos he took in 1950s and '60s showing trips he made with his dog team to Dawson City.

"They have a lot of questions," said Alexie, who never tires of telling visitors about his many adventures in the North. "It's good that they have a lot of questions."

He takes them to a map on the wall and shows them where his camp is, about 150 km south along the Peel River. Then he traces even farther south into remote territory where he used to trap and hunt by dogsled.

Many visitors ask to have their picture taken with Alexie, something he doesn't mind at all.

A lot of people don't know what to expect when they arrive, he said, adding one tourist in a camper said he wasn't expecting to use his air conditioning above the Arctic Circle.

Campers and cars usually start rolling into Fort McPherson around June 1, he said, and by his estimation the numbers have been down a lot this year.

"It's the gas prices. It's really hurting the tourists. No Greyhounds either," he said. Alexie said there used to be three or four tour buses every summer. He said he also thinks the condition of the Dempster might be stopping people, too.

"There's a lot of talk about that road," he said. "Around Eagle Plains and the Ogilvie Pass areas it's really rough."

He is glad that people are still making the trip, despite gas prices and the state of the road. He said they make his days much more enjoyable in the summer months.

"I like this job because tourists are the most wonderful people you could meet," he said.