Yellowknife (May 16/05) - Toronto Dominion Bank is celebrating 150 years of business in Canada this week.

The bank will mark the anniversary tomorrow with cake and a draw to win a DVD player.

What many may not know is that the bank has a history reaching back into the 1930s in Yellowknife.

The Bank of Toronto was the first bank to come to Yellowknife in 1938. Operated by manager Allen Lambert out of a log building on Latham Island, the bank had quite a different look from today's ultra-secure banks.

"We were aggressively looking at new markets at that point," Mike Adamchick, the bank's current manager, said.

The bank left town after a downturn in the economy in 1953, then came to its current home on Franklin Ave in 1973 after a 20-year hiatus from the North.

Things are looking better for the bank and its 12 employees now, Adamchick said, and there's no sign of it leaving any time soon.