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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
A Yellowknife man is looking for help in building a historical catalogue of the faces, names and places associated with Yellowknife's mining history.

Do you know these people? The NWT Mining Heritage Society has set up a website to try and identify the people and places featured in approximately 5,000 photos documenting Yellowknife's mining history. This picture shows Giant Mine workers in 1985. - photo courtesy of Ryan Silke / NWT Mining Heritage Society

Ryan Silke is a volunteer with the NWT Mining Heritage Society and two weeks ago his website went live, asking people if they can identify people and places shown in approximately 5,000 pictures for the Giant and Con mines.

"Well, the Mining Heritage Society has I believe about 10,000 images in their collection ... and many of them have been sort of borrowed, scanned and then returned to the owners," said Silke.

"We have quite a comprehensive list and one of our tasks has been to get help identifying faces and places and stuff like that. So one of my ideas was to post these online and have sort of a photo gallery where people can log in and take a look at (them)," he said.

He said prior to bringing the site live two weeks ago, he had been passing pictures around and mailing them to people he suspected may be able to help identify who are in those pictures.

"It was becoming kind of cumbersome, so I thought, 'well, why don't I just make a central location where people can access them from anywhere?"

He said the response has been really good in the two weeks the site has been up.

"Every week we are adding more names, we're clarifying some names, removing some names that might be wrong."

He said the current goal is to simply to preserve and document the pictures, but said eventually he sees them being used for history projects.

He admits that some of the pictures may never have full documentation, but because they are a part of Yellowknife history, it's important to try.

"In some of the older photographs I don't know if we'll ever find the names, but I think probably half of them are identified," said Silke. "I know that there are still people around who would know those names, so it's just a matter of them knowing about the website and e-mailing us with some of their ideas."

He said they are focusing more on pictures from the 1960s onwards, as there is a better chance of having somebody who remembers.

Silke has his own connections to the mining industry. His father worked with Cominco from 1978 until the Con Mine closed in 2003.

"So for me it was kind of about understanding my own history and knowing a lot of the names and people who made a contribution not only to the mines but also to Yellowknife's social history," said Silke.

Stephen Clark is a co-ordinator with the Mining Heritage Society. He said this, and other similar initiatives, are important for the city.

"Well, of course mining is what Yellowknife is all about. That's where Yellowknife got it's start and there's still lots of people from the Con, Giant Mine and many of the other smaller mines around here, so it's still fresh in people's minds, and we always like to reminisce about the past," said Clark.

He said he likes seeing people take on initiatives like these.

"It makes me happy, because you have to know where you come from to know where you're going, and I think the more people appreciate their pasts, the better they can make their future," said Clark.

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