A lot of things have changed in Yellowknife since it was founded 75 years ago. So what do you think Yellowknife will be like 25, 50 or even 75 years from now?

Does looking at the past really help predict the future? Envisaging the future could actually be turned into a great little contest.

You could have people write down their predictions in a short essay and then put them into a time capsule, to be taken out and read at Yellowknife's future anniversaries. After all, it is never too early to start planning for Yellowknife's centennial.

When Yellowknife was founded, most people and freight came here by boat from Waterways, Alta. Today, only some of our bulk fuel comes by boat, most of our freight comes by road and most people fly to and from Yellowknife in commercial airplanes. So what will the future bring?

I would say that we are due for another transportation revolution and if you are going to dream, then why not dream big? I would like to see freight come by solar-powered dirigible airships. Wouldn't that be fun to see large dirigibles arrive, each one carrying several truckloads of freight? Just like aircraft and then jet planes revolutionized transportation, maybe someone will invent pollution -free, anti-gravity flying saucers. There would be big ones to carry people around the world and we would each have our own small flying saucer for local transportation. Roads and bridges might become obsolete.

In the early days, Yellowknife was heated primarily by wood, today it is heating fuel. In the future I hope that it is a combination of geothermal energy, solar and wind power. Heating and electricity costs are major expenses in the North and they do limit our development, so a breakthrough in those technologies could revolutionize life in the North. Just imagine what life would be like if we had inexpensive and renewable energy.

In the early days a significant portion of Yellowknife's food came off of the land or from market gardens. Today almost all the food is trucked in. I hope that in the future a significant portion of the food is grown or raised here locally. This could be done with greenhouses heated in winter by sewage and garbage composters. A large well-run greenhouse complex could produce a lot of our fresh fruit and vegetables and a few well-run farms under domes could produce a lot of our dairy, poultry and meat.

Seventy-five years ago people threw their garbage into a hole in the ground. Today the city of Yellowknife has made the startling advancement that they compact the garbage before they throw it into the hole, which has now become a dirt-covered mound. Hopefully in the not too distant future, garbage dumps will be a thing of the past. All organics will be composted, metals and plastics recycled and valuables reused. The Yellowknife city dump, with its enlightened salvage practices, will be heralded as one of the first dumps to enter the 21st century and it will be a beacon for others to emulate.

A lot can happen in 25, 50 or 75 years. We now have computers, satellite communications, iPods and cell phones. Who knows what the future may bring in technological wonders? But in order for communities to survive and prosper they need an economic base. In the North, that base has been mining and I predict that it will stay that way for years to come. So for Yellowknife and the North to prosper, we need a number of good clean mining operations to employ people and to pay the bills.

The future is what we make it, so let's make it a good one.

Happy 100th anniversary, Yellowknife.

- Walt Humphries is a well-known Yellowknife artist and prospector