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Brock Hagen Parsons, nicknamed “Rocky”, was born to Frederick and Mary Parsons in Rainy River, Ontario on October 22, 1926. Frederick was a railroader and the family moved to various small towns in Manitoba and northern Ontario as he was transferred every few years. In 1943, following his graduation from high school, Rocky enlisted in the Canadian army and served in World War II. After the war, he tried various things, including attending the University of Manitoba, mining in Flin Flon, and trapping.

Rocky started training for his private pilot’s licence in August 1949 at the Winnipeg Flying Club and received his licence (P-417) the following month. From 1949-51, he flew for Severn Trading in Ontario. Rocky was also the owner of his own Tiger Moth.

Rocky received his Commercial pilot’s licence (C-5667) in May 1951 and flew for Superior Airways from 1951-52 in the Port Arthur-Fort William (now Thunder Bay) area. In 1952, while in Port Arthur, he met his future wife, Mary. The two were married July 20, 1953 and had three girls, Catherine, Gwendolyn, and Elizabeth.

Hoping for a more stable life, Rocky joined the Royal Canadian Air Force in 1953 and was stationed at Claresholm, Alberta. It was here that Rocky was trained in navigation, something that became a point of professional pride and personal interest.

Rocky did not stay in the Air Force long, but accepted a job with Associated Airways. He and Mary moved to Yellowknife in the fall of 1953 and were transferred to Hay River a few months later. When their first baby was born and required medical treatment, the Parsons moved back to Ontario.

Later in 1954, Rocky accepted a job with Arctic Wings (Trans Air) and the family moved to Churchill, Manitoba, where they remained until 1964. Rocky achieved his Senior Commercial licence (WGS 635) in October 1960 and ran his own company, Arctic Airways, out of Churchill from 1960-1964. Notable experiences included flying Anglican Bishop of the Arctic Donald Marsh on his 6-week tours of the Keewatin and flying medevacs from various communities to the hospitals in Chesterfield Inlet or Churchill. Parsons is also remembered for making Christmas deliveries, as is told in the story “Baseball Bats for Christmas”, written by Michael Arvaarluk in 1990.

When the Parsons family left Churchill, they moved south to Sioux Lookout for a brief time. Rocky studied for his Airline Transport rating (WGA 869) in Winnipeg, earning it in December of 1964.

During 1965-66, Rocky flew for Nordair Ltd., based out of Montreal’s Dorval Airport and servicing mainly Iqaluit and the DEW Line. The family lived in Lachine, Quebec. In 1967, they returned to Yellowknife, when Rocky began working for Bob Engle and NWT Air. Yellowknife remained Rocky’s home for the rest of his life.

In 1970, Rocky moved over to Wardair, then became Chief Pilot of Northward Airlines from 1973 to 1977, during which time he was responsible for training young pilots. Although still living in Yellowknife, Rocky began doing more flights in the high Arctic, flying for Bradley Air (1977-78) and Kenn Borek Air (1978-83), including several trips to the North Pole. On a notable trip May 15, 1982, the Twin Otter went through the ice and although the aircraft was lost, Rocky was able to evacuate the passengers and crew in time. Rocky was also involved in a project with the Geological Survey of Canada, in which they landed on the ice about every 50 kilometers to take readings, all the way to the North Pole.

As he aged, Rocky reduced his work schedule and took contracts with several companies, including Laronge Airways, Nahanni Air, and North-Wright Airways. Throughout his career, Rocky had a strong work ethic of doing things properly and well. He took his responsibility for himself, his aircraft, and his passengers very seriously. This conscientiousness led to his decision to retire at the age of 65. He did not fly again.

Rocky was best known for his extensive experience with the Twin Otter aircraft, but he also piloted many other types of planes, including the Tiger Moth, Norseman, Bellanca Skyrocket, DC3, DC4, C46, Beechcraft Model 18, Single Otter, Bristol Freighter, Gulfstream 1, and Fokker F27. Rocky travelled to various locations for intensive training courses on many of the aircraft he flew.
In his private life, Rocky was a member of the Canadian Legion, Masonic Lodge 162 (Yellowknife), and Holy Trinity Anglican Church (Yellowknife). He enjoyed being outdoors camping, fishing, and canoeing, even toward the end of his life. Rocky was also an avid reader and enjoyed music. He took a keen interest in navigation, even while on the ground, collecting and using bubble sextants. He took great pride in his family and spending time with his grandchildren. Rocky died on July 30, 2019 at the age of 92.

Captain Lewis Royal Morton was born on January 18, 1883 in the County of Morton, Ontario. He joined the Northern Transportation Company (NTCL) in 1907. He served as port skipper for the NTCL and was skipper on the "Radium King," "Radium Queen" and for the Hudson's Bay Company boat the "Mackenzie River." His service with the Northern Transportation Company was broken only by a four-year service as a Lance Corporal in the Royal Engineers during World War I. Over the years he worked for the Hudson's Bay Company, Northern Transportation Company Ltd. and the McGinnis Fish Company. He assisted in the building of many barges and boats, such as the "Porphyry," "George Askew" and "The Great Bear." He also assisted in the designs for the "Radium Gilbert" and the "Yellowknife." He traveled virtually every mile of waterway in the northwest, from the lower Peace River to the Mackenzie Delta. Captain Morton died in Surrey, British Columbia in 1980.

Carlton R. Appleby was a deckhand on the riverboat the 'Beaver Lake' during the summer of 1946. He traveled along the Athabasca and Slave Rivers for the summer and then boarded the 'Dease Lake' on September 1, 1946 and traveled to Fort Rae. During his time in the north, he also worked on the Yellowknife Hotel. He now resides in California.

Curtis Leroy Merrill was born in St. Thomas, Ontario, on April 20, 1917. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a Bachelor of Arts in Geology, and was a pilot for the Royal Canadian Air Force during World War II. Merrill took part in two Canadian Expeditions to the Arctic Islands, and was a member of the 1949 Foxe Basin Expedition.

In 1952, Merrill began working for the Defense Research Board. In 1954, he was seconded to the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources to head a survey team which was sent to the Mackenzie Delta to find a location suitable for a new town site to replace Aklavik. The survey crew commenced work in March 1954 and focused their efforts upon three possible locations, the Husky site located at Husky Channel, East 3 and East 4. East 3, which was renamed Inuvik in 1957, was eventually chosen as the location of the new town site. Merrill led the project until 1956 when he was appointed District Administrator of the Mackenzie District and was transferred to Fort Smith. Merrill was transferred to Ottawa in 1963.

Curtis married Mary and they had six children: David, Bill, Robert (Bob), Greg, and Janice. After being transferred to Ottawa, the family lived near Wakefield, Quebec, and then along the Gatineau River. Curtis Merrill retired from the federal government in the late 1970s. In the mid to late 1990s, Curtis and Mary moved to Deep River, Ontario. Curtis Merrill died on September 22, 2010.

John Davids was born in Stornoway, Saskatchewan on July 23 1915; he was the eldest of seven children. His father was employed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR) as a maintenance man and tracklayer. Early in John's life, CPR transferred the Davids family to Hartney, Manitoba. In 1931, John developed an interest in constructing airplanes when he assisted Maurice Fry with the construction of Peintenpol CF-ARH. Later they constructed a Monocoupe. Although he enjoyed building airplanes and barnstorming, financial considerations required he take a job with Continental Auto Supply. During his employ with Continental he moved from Brandon to Regina and finally to Edmonton as Branch Manager. In World War II, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force where he served as a staff pilot and later as a conversion instructor. Soon after the war, John Davids began flying with Associated Airways Ltd., which later became Pacific Western Airlines. While working with Associated Airways, he met and married Coral Enzenauer. He was eventually promoted to the position of Chief Pilot of PWA's Northern Division, VFR Department. With a keen interest in the history of aviation, he researched and taped interviews for the Canadian Bush Pilot Flying Story Project. He was Secretary-Treasurer for the Edmonton Quarter Century Aviation Club (EQCAC) for many years and later became the Club's President. An avid writer and photographer, he published the EQCAC Newsletter for many years and compiled a collection of over 20,000 photographs including 10,000 slides and a few hundred feet of movies.

John D. Nicholson was born in Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1863. In 1885, he joined the North West Mounted Police and was stationed in Regina. Following his initial training, he was sent to Edmonton. As a Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) Officer, he was stationed in a number of locations including Battleford and Fort McLeod. In 1916, his station with the RCMP was taken over by the newly formed Alberta Provincial Police, whom he served with until his retirement in 1927. In 1929, his attention was directed toward the mineral surveying and prospecting industry in northern Canada and he accepted the position of Field Manager with the Mineral Belt Locators Syndicate. Following the discovery of pitchblende in the Great Bear Lake area in 1931, John Nicholson organized the Camsell River Mineral Syndicate. Using a large fishing boat and barge, he transported goods to and from prospecting camps and occasionally sold his services for information concerning possible discoveries. In 1934 W.G. "Bill" Stewart took a half interest in another barge and joined Nicholson in his transport and prospecting endeavors. He continued to work in the Great Bear Lake region until the discovery of gold near the Yellowknife River attracted him to Yellowknife. With the onset of World War II in 1939, John Nicholson rejoined the RCMP.

Knut H. Lang was born on July 21, 1895 in Silkeborg, Jutland, Denmark. He worked his way to Canada via land-clearing in England and as a farm labourer in New Zealand. In 1928, he came to the north by cutting timber for a ship's fuel as it travelled down the Mackenzie River. He eventually settled in Aklavik where he operated a small trading post and also worked as an independent trapper. He was elected to the Northwest Territories Council in August 1957 to represent the Mackenzie Delta and remained a member until the last session which closed in November 1963. He died on April 13, 1964 after a long illness.

A.K. "Lex" Miller was born in northern Alberta and grew up in Edmonton. After graduating from high school, he joined the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), in order to earn money for university. He was hired by the Mackenzie River Transport Company, a division of the HBC, and worked as a checker and stenographer during the summers of 1940 to 1942. Following World War II, he returned to Edmonton to become a Chartered Accountant. Among his clients were the towns of Hay River and Fort Smith. In 1987, Miller was the spokesperson for the One Canada Party, a Conservative fringe group of the 1970s.

Ole Lindberg moved to Canada from Sweden in 1910 and traveled west across Canada by working on the railway. He moved north from Edmonton in search of gold. Ole met Anna in 1921 and spent one winter living with her family. Eventually Ole and Anna married and had four children. Ole did some prospecting with men such as Dick Turner and Albert Faille, however he was primarily a trapper. In the 1940s, Ole began operating a barge to haul freight on the Mackenzie and Liard Rivers. Edwin Lindberg was born on June 16, 1929 near Blackstone. The family was forced to leave the Nahanni region in 1950 because of the tuberculosis epidemic. Ole and one of Edwin's brothers died during the epidemic and Edwin spent eight years in hospital in Edmonton. Following his release from hospital Edwin worked briefly at a power plant in Fort Simpson. He soon left that job and returned to the work of hauling freight on the Mackenzie River. In 1963, Edwin married Susan, a nurse in Fort Simpson and they lived on a tugboat until 1970. Edwin continued to run the freight business until 1978, when he and Susan returned to the Liard River and Nahanni Butte region. They were visited by many people and decided to turn their home into a lodge for tourists.

Norman Lubbock (Robbie) Robinson was born on July 18, 1890 in County Wicklow Ireland. He spent over two years with the Northwest Mounted Police prior to World War I, and then five years in the army; first with the 19th Alberta Dragoons and then with the British Army in 1915. After returning to Edmonton in 1919, he worked as an Inspector with the Soldiers Settlement Board before traveling to the Northwest Territories where he spent five years working as a trapper, guide and purser aboard the steamer "Mackenzie River." In 1925, he returned to Edmonton with the intention to rejoin the Northwest Mounted Police, however, due to poor eyesight he was denied a position. He moved to British Columbia where he married in November 1928 and operated a timber business near Kamloops. During the Depression, he accepted a position as a Game Warden with the British Columbia Provincial Game Department. He held this position until 1938 and worked in Kamloops, Quesnel and Lillooet, British Columbia. In 1938, Robinson and his wife moved to Ireland for two years where he worked for the Turf Development Board on Clonsast Bog in Leix, Ireland. They returned to Canada in 1940. At the time of his May 1952 death in Calgary at age 61, he was an employment claims officer for the Unemployment Insurance Commission.

Edmonton entrepreneur, Cy Becker, established the Northern Transportation Company Limited (NTCL) in 1931. In 1936, the company was purchased by Charles and Gilbert Labine who in turn sold it to Eldorado Mining for $87,500. In 1942, Eldorado became a crown corporation. In 1976, NTCL ceased to be part of Eldorado Mining and became an independent entity, although still a crown corporation. NTCL had a profound effect on the development of the western arctic. Although purchased to supply Elorado mining, it always acted as a general carrier. In 1948, the NTCL was dominant in the arctic transportation industry in the Northwest Territories and in 1960, NTCL received the contract to supply DEW line sites and began operating on the Arctic Ocean. The Company's operations are divided into two main geographic sections: the Mackenzie/Western Arctic (including the Kitikmeot Region of Nunavut and Alaska) and the Eastern Arctic, which is comprised of the Kivalliq and Baffin Regions of Nunavut. Service in the Mackenzie River watershed began in 1934 and along the Western Arctic Coast and Islands in 1957. Service was extended to encompass the North Slope of Alaska in 1963. Cargo arrives by rail or truck at NTCL's largest operating terminal located at Hay River. It is then transported across Great Slave Lake, down the Mackenzie River to Tuktoyaktuk and along the Arctic coast eastward to Taloyoak and westward to Point Hope, Alaska. In addition to its Regional Offices, NTCL maintains two operating terminals in the Mackenzie Western Arctic, located at Inuvik and Tuktoyaktuk. Its extensive maritime route system in this sector is serviced by a large fleet of tugs and dual-purpose shallow draft barges, which carry both, bulk petroleum products and dry cargo. NTCL's operations in the Kivalliq region were established in 1975 out of Churchill, Manitoba. The communities of Arviat, Whale Cove, Rankin Inlet, Chesterfield Inlet, Baker Lake and Coral Harbour are serviced through NTCL's Regional Office located at Rankin Inlet and its receiving terminal at Churchill. The company operates one tug, the M.V. Keewatin, and four dual-purpose 1800 series barges in the performance of its Kivalliq service. In 1996, NTCL began to supply fuel to all communities in the Baffin region. Although, NTCL's primary function is marine transportation, it also provides full range integrated logistics support services. Extensive marine maintenance and repair services are conducted in Hay River. Other services include warehousing and distribution, equipment chartering and leasing, steel fabrication and machining, electronic sales and service and the sale of industrial parts and supplies. NTCL is a member of the NorTerra group of companies.

Otto Lahser was one of a party that traveled from Detroit Michigan to Athabasca (Alberta) and built the boat "Enterprise." From there, the group journeyed down the Athabasca and Slave Rivers to Great Slave Lake and then down the Mackenzie River to the Peel River. It was at the Peel River that the group sold the "Enterprise" and then split up. Some members attempted to travel south by dog sled while others crossed the Richardson Mountains to LaPerre's House and Fort Yukon.

Peter Lockhart Gordon and his brother, Hugh Donald Lockhart Gordon travelled down the Nahanni in the summer of 1961 by canoe. Hugh drowned while on the trip.

Poole Field was a trader, trapper and prospector in the Yukon and Nahanni Butte region. He was born near Regina in approximately 1880. He joined the Royal Northwest Mounted Police (RNWMP) as a young man and transferred to the Yukon during the gold rush in the late 1890s. After three years, Field left the RNWMP and went to Alaska for about five years. He returned to the Yukon and during this time, he met and married Mary Atkinson (nee Lafferty). Field made at least one trip into the Nahanni region in 1905 but returned to the Yukon. Mary and Poole moved to the Nahanni Butte region in approximately 1914 after coming into the possession of a letter written by Martin Jorgenson claiming he had found gold. In 1915 or 1916, Field and his companions found the remains of Jorgenson at his burned cabin near Virginia Falls. According to Dick Turner, author of the book "Nahanni", Field spoke Cree and Slavey fluently and was an excellent woodsman. In approximately 1924, Field began operating as an independent trader and ran a store at Trout Lake for three years before returning to Nahanni Butte where he operated an independent trading post from 1928 to about 1935. In the 1940s, Field worked as a river pilot during the summer and trapped during the winter seasons.

Construction of the Mackenzie Highway system began in 1946. Work on the highway from the Alberta boundary to Hay River was completed in 1948.

Francis (Frank) Leo Buckley was born on November 9, 1893 in Seattle, Washington. In the summer of 1938, Frank and his wife Viola, daughter Patricia (Patsy) and son Harold (Timmy) moved from Peace River, Alberta to Yellowknife. Mr. Buckley made the journey by transporting two scows loaded with gasoline belonging to Peace River Airways, traveling down Peace River and Slave River, and finally crossing Great Slave Lake. During this trip the scows also brought up a cow and two horses (Prince and Pal), the first horses to arrive in Yellowknife. Between 1938-1940, Mr. Buckley worked hauling wood on land and freighting lumber across Great Slave Lake from the saw mill near Hay River owned by M. MacDonald and Bobbie Porritt. In 1942, Mr. Buckley returned with his family to his wife's hometown of Wetaskiwin, Alberta. Mr. Buckley continued to do occasional freighting work in the north until 1950.

George Hunter was born in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1921. In 1937 at the age of 16, he bought his first camera to record his trip to London, England for the coronation of King George VI. He began selling his first photographs the next year. From 1945-1950 he worked for the National Film Board's Still Division. In 1950, he went into business for himself, buying a Piper Clipper airplane for aerial photographs. He promoted himself as a corporate, industrial and aerial photographer.

George Hunter's work in the north consisted of primarily mining industry photography during the 1950s. During this time he also gained an international reputation, carrying out assignments for Time, Fortune and National Geographic magazines. In 1977 he was one of the first photographers elected to the Royal Canadian Acadamy of Arts. His images have been used by companies around the world, as well as Canada Post for images on stamps, and the Bank of Canada, which used his images of salmon seiners on the $5 bill and oil refineries on the $10 bill for the 1972-1988 banknote series. His more recent work has focused on travel photography and fine art photography. In 2005 the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Center hosted an exhibit of his work entitled "Not only gold: 1950s mining in the NWT", by the NWT Mining Heritage Society, funded in part by the Department of Industry, Tourism and Investment.

George Hunter passed away in Mississauga, Ontario on April 10, 2013.

The Department of Infrastructure was established April 1, 2017 with the amalgamation of the Department of Public Works and Services and the Department of Transportation. Infrastructure is responsible for strategic planning of public transportation infrastructure (including roads, bridges, ferries, and airports) and energy production and distribution systems; the disposal of surplus government property and goods; environmental impact assessment/regulatory review and approval; information management and technology; Marine Transportation Services; mechanical/electrical regulatory services; motor and vehicle services; planning, design, construction, acquisition, operation and maintenance of public buildings and transportation infrastructure and systems; energy conservation and efficiency programs; property management; and remediation of public infrastructure.