SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Around two dozen people came out to honour Yellowknife's flight history at the base of Pilot's Monument in Old Town on a chilly afternoon Tuesday.

Christian Anderson-Martin, right, Curtis Kenny, front, Robin Abel, left, and Eric Vandenberg, back, check out the new Pilots Monument plaque Tuesday afternoon after it was unveiled. - Elizabeth McMillan/NNSL photo

Dale Crouch, commanding officer of the air cadets, said the monument represents the history of the city. He told the crowd Yellowknife has a significant place in aviation history because planes were crucial to the city's development. Before the Mackenzie Highway was completed in 1967, the only way to get to Yellowknife was by air.

He told the small crowd that even when the airport was built in 1944, float planes still had to fly people from town to Long Lake to get to the airport.

In March of this year, cadets chose the landmark hill as a project to commemorate 100 years of powered flight in Canada.

Crouch said there was nothing that marked the Pilot's Monument from the ground and people wouldn't known the significance of the site unless they made the trek to the top of the hill.

"Now people will have direction to what's up there (at Pilot's Monument) and what's beyond," Crouch said.

Mayor Gord Van Tighem pulled the curtain from the plaque and people snapped photos and posed with it.

"It's important for Yellowknife to have landmarks and having those helps to develop the culture and flavour of the city," said Crouch to Yellowknifer, following the unveiling.

The cadets, aged 12 to 18, clamoured over the plaque, pointing our their own names engraved on it.

"We should be celebrating the history and recognizing the people who made life today possible," said cadet Colton Curtis about the importance of the new sign.

"We'll be on it forever," said his fellow cadet Robin Abel.