Records document John Newton's research in Fort Liard and Aklavik and consist of interview transcripts, correspondence and reports which document interviews with community members, government officials, and elders regarding historical community flooding and its social impacts as part of the Mackenzie Basin Impact Study and Newton's Ph.D thesis, "Community adjustment to extreme geophysical phenomena in the northern regions of Canada." The interviewees' identities are anonymized in the material.

The textual records consist of transcipts of the sound recordings in Chipewyan as well as English translations. The recordings contain interviews with elders that lived in Salt River in the 1920s and 1930s. The elders interviewed were Francois King Beaulieu, Maria Brown, Vincent Beaulieu, Liza Schaefer, Francois Laviolette and Fred Dawson. Topics covered in the interviews include history of Beaulieu family, house construction, animal husbandry, farming and the effect of the major flood that took place at Salt River Settlement during the 1930s.

This fonds consists of 5 audio cassettes containing interviews with elders that lived in the Salt River area in the 1920s and 1930s, including Francois King Beaulieu, Maria Brown, Vincent Beaulieu, Liza Schaefer, Francois Laviolette and Fred Dawson. The topics of the interviews include a history of the Beaulieu family, housing construction, animal husbandry, farming and the effect of the flood that took place at the Salt River Settlement in the 1930s. The fonds also contains 3 cm of textual material which includes Chipewyan transcripts and English translations of the sound recordings.

The video depicts three different flooding incidents: 1) Fort Simpson flood and break-up from 1972, 2) 1989 break-up and flooding in Fort Liard in 1989 and 3) break-up and flood in Aklavik in 1992.

This fonds consists of 72 photographs of Fort Simpson, including many images of the May 1963 flood. Also included in the fonds are a variety of memorabilia such as licences for the trading post, invitations to state functions, notices of school graduation ceremonies and a short history of the trading post at Fort Simpson.