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John K. Leslie worked at the Tuktoyaktuk DEW Line site as civilian personnel from 1958 to 1961.

Sam Lennie was born on August 29, 1928 at Horton River, NT and Margaret Lennie was born on November 25, 1930 at Coppermine (Kugluktuk), NT. They currently reside in Inuvik, NT.

John J Lengyel was born on September 13, 1911, in Naugatuck, Connecticut, to James Lengyel and Bertha Lengyel (nee Horvath). In 1913, the family moved to Lethbridge, Alberta. Lengyel had five sisters and six brothers: Bertha, Margaret, Anne (Annie), Katie, Helen, Jim, Joe, George, Bill, Chester, and Andrew (Andy).

In 1938, Lengyel moved to Edmonton, Alberta, and married Ellen Martin. They had two children: Joan (b. 1942) and J. George Lengyel (1943-1960).

Lengyel was a “Jack of all trades” and worked many different jobs over the years, including as a butcher, roofer, and siding installer.

In the mid- to late 1940s, Lengyel worked as a fisherman for the first commercial fishery on Great Slave Lake. During the same period, Lengyel and some friends, including his brother Chester, “wanted a challenge” and they built the tugboat ‘Thunder River’ in Edmonton, then travelled north on the boat. Lengyel worked on the boat transporting items salvaged from the Canol Project, likely in the summer of 1949.

In 1951, John J Lengyel and his family moved to Stavely, Alberta, and settled on a farm East of Stavely.

John J Lengyel died June 11, 1976.

Chester John Lengyel was born November 27, 1923, in Lethbridge, Alberta, to James Lengyel and Bertha Lengyel (nee Horvath). Lengyel had five sisters and six brothers: Bertha, Margaret, Anne (Annie), Katie, Helen, Jim, John, Joe, George, Bill, and Andrew (Andy). He married Eva Bertha Taylor (October 15, 1915 – August 4, 1978). He later married Evelyn McCallum. Chester Lengyel had at least one daughter, Pam.

In the mid- to late 1940s, Chester worked with his older brother John J Lengyel on the construction of the tugboat ‘Thunder River’ in Edmonton. He probably also worked on the boat transporting items salvaged from the Canol Project, likely in the summer of 1949.

Chester also lived and worked in Hay River for several years, where he started and ran the Hay River Telephone Service. This began with the purchase of Horace Argue’s expediting business with Lengyel’s first partner Emil Krysco (until 1953) and continued with William Napier until the Hay River Telephone Service was purchased by Canadian National Telecommunications (CNT) in 1961.

Lengyel moved south and settled on Salt Spring Island, BC, where he ran a mink farm.

Chester Lengyel died August 9, 1996, on Salt Spring Island, BC.

Miriam Leith was employed as Supervisor of Home Management Programs in the Keewatin between 1960s-1970s. In the 1960s, she worked for the federal government delivering home economic courses in the eastern arctic. In 1967, she was hired by the Northern Administration Branch to work in their Adult Education Housing Education Program. Following the construction of new houses, Miriam Leith worked in Iqaluit (Frobisher Bay) assisting the local Inuit to learn new home making skills such as house cleaning, cooking with electric appliances, and sewing skills. She also counselled them on dietary needs and how to shop for food.

Ms. Leith died in [1974-1975].

Mr. Laycock was born in Ponoka, Alberta on September 5, 1928. After he graduated high school he spent 10 years as an employee of Chevron Standard Limited. In 1956 he formed his own company, Pawnee Petroleum Ltd. In the early 1960s he established Calgary Exploration Services (Calex) with his wife Georgina Laycock and his business partner Ronald Schmitke. In the winter of 1962/63, under contract with Canadian National Telecommunications, Calex cleared a right-of-way for a telegraph line along the Mackenzie River from Fort Providence to Inuvik. During the winter of 1963/64, Calex again used the right-of-way constructed the previous year to push through the first winter road from Fort Providence to Inuvik. This road was operated as a toll road by Calex. Calex continued to operate winter roads until Mr. Laycock's death in December 1969.

Bill Largent lived from 1920 to 1951 in the Yellowknife and Hay River area. Bill's parents were Charles Largent and Estelle [maiden name unknown]. In the summer, they travelled north and traded furs. In winter, they ran a trading post, the location of which is unknown to the donor.

Growing up in the north, Bill learned to speak a multitude of Aboriginal and Inuit languages, and often assisted the RCMP with translations. As a teenager he had his own dog team and worked a trap line. As an adult, he owned and operated a gravel truck out of Hay River. Here he met his wife, Judy Rabchak Geyer. In 1951, Bill and Judy sold the gravel truck and moved to Vancouver Island to be closer to family. They visited Yellowknife again in 1970, but resided in British Columbia for the rest of their days. Bill passed away in Nanaimo on July 25th, 1981.

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.

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.

The Lac La Martre Community Education Committee is a local, elected body in Wha Ti that determines school policies and directions in relation to the community on matters not directly affected by the Education Act. At the time of this project, the members of the committee were Menton Mantla (Chairman), Jimmy Rabesca, Johnny Nitsiza, Alphonse Simpson, Joe Zoe Fish, and Dora Mantla (Secretary/Treasurer).

The Lac La Martre Community Education Committee is a local, elected body in Wha Ti that determines school policies and directions in relation to the community on matters not directly affected by the Education Act. At the time of this project, the members of the committee were Menton Mantla (Chairman), Jimmy Rabesca, Johnny Nitsiza, Alphonse Simpson, Joe Zoe Fish, and Dora Mantla (Secretary/Treasurer).

Charles LaBine was born in 1888 at Westmeath, a small community in the Ottawa Valley near Pembroke, Ontario. Charles was the elder brother of Gilbert LaBine. After working for several years in the silver mines of northern Ontario, Charles and Gilbert LaBine began prospecting for themselves. They founded Eldorado Gold Mines Ltd. in the 1920s following the discovery of gold in Manitoba. Charles LaBine was responsible for managing the financial aspects of the mining operation. Though Eldorado Gold didn’t succeed as hoped, it provided the LaBine brothers with the finances needed mto conduct further prospecting activities.

Investigating the mining potential around Great Bear Lake that had been documented by James McIntosh Bell of the Geological Survey of Canada, the LaBine brothers began prospecting along the shores of Great Bear Lake. In the spring of 1930, Gilbert LaBine discovered a deposit of pitchblende, another name for uranium ore. The discovery was made on the shore of Echo Bay. The development of a viable mining operation faced significant financing and logistical challenges, as the mine was more than 2000 km from the nearest railway. Although Charles was not with Gilbert when the pitchblende was found, it was his job to follow up and solve the financing and logistical problems of moving equipment to the mine site and the ore south for processing. In order to finance the development, the LaBines mined the silver that lay in the same area of Great Bear Lake.

The operation began as a radium mine in 1932, extracting radium from pitchblende. Mined materials were shipped by barge and air plane to Fort McMurray, Alberta, then by train to a radium refinery in Port Hope, Ontario. The company secured a contract with the United States military early in 1942. The Eldorado Mine at Port Radium was transferred to the Canadian Government in 1944 and renamed Eldorado Mining and Refining Limited. Uranium ore from the mine was used in the atomic bomb developments of 1945.

In the 1950s, uranium was discovered along the shores of Lake Athabasca. There the Labine brothers founded Gunnar Mines, the first Canadian producer of uranium that returned a profit to its shareholders. Gilbert was president and Charles the vice-president of Gunnar. Charles retired from the management in 1955.
The contribution of the LaBine brothers to the advancement of medical science as a result of their work was recognized at home and abroad. The brothers received the Curie medal from the governing body of the International Union Against Cancer. The citation accompanying the medal to Charles LaBine said that the Pierre and Marie Curie medal, which had been struck in 1938 on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the discovery of radium, was conferred upon him “for the distinguished services that you have rendered to science and to humanity.” Charles LaBine died in 1969 at the age of 81.

Father Felicien (Felix) Labat OMI was born May 25, 1928 to Angele (nee Kerautret) and Jean-Pierre Labat near Leon, in the Brittany region of France. He had one brother, Derrien, and three sisters: Catherine, two Marguerites and Louise. He came to the Northwest Territories in 1953, being posted to Deline in 1954-1961 and Tulita in 1961-1966. Other communities Father Labat was stationed at included Fort Smith, Norman Wells (as pastor), Fort Good Hope, and Hay River. His final position was as Chaplain at the Stanton Regional Hospital, Yellowknife. After 57 years as a missionary in the NWT, Father Labat retired to Foyer Lacombe in St. Albert, Alberta. He died April 12, 2018 at the age of 89.

Alvin Jack La Flair was born in Ogdensberg, New York on June 14, 1891. He left home in 1906 and found work in Wyoming on sheep and cattle ranches. In 1910, after a trip south to the Panama Canal and back to Ogdensberg, he began to gather horses in Montana and in 1914, he drove his small herd of horses to Alberta and then continued to move North. In the Spring of 1915, Jack and a business partner named Maloote arrived at Fort Smith where they were warned by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to turn back as they had not brought the required year's worth of supplies. Disregarding this warning, LaFlair and his partner continued to paddle up the Liard River and spent that winter trapping and hunting on the South Nahanni. Maloote left the North in the Spring of 1916, however, Jack stayed in the area and eventually reported that he had stayed in the North to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. They allowed him to remain in Canada and La Flair became a licenced independent trader in the region. His original store was at the foot of the Splits; he later moved, building a trading post and house on the west side of the Liard just north of the mouth of the South Nahanni. Jack may have been the first trader at this location. To avoid confusion with the North Nahanni, he coined the area "Nahanni Butte". Jack La Flair remained in the area as a permanent resident, trapping and providing for the region as an independent trader until he suffered a heart attack and died while chopping wood on October 17, 1950 and was buried near his cabin. Jack was survived by his common-law wife, Emmerance Paquette and his son Alvin Paquette. His trading post was taken over by Gus Kraus, who ran it until May 1951. Emmerance left the area after Jack's death.

Gus Kraus was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA on October 28, 1898. In 1916 at the age of 18 he left Chicago and headed north to Alberta with his brother Joe to homestead in the Peace River area. After about ten years Gus travelled further north to the Northwest Territories, where he prospected and trapped in the Nahanni region beginning around 1934.

Mary Kraus (nee Denya) was born in 1912 near Fort Liard. Orphaned at the age of two, she was raised by family for several years until she went to a convent [Fort Simpson or Fort Providence?] for six years. In her earlier years she primarily lived on the land with her family in the Nahanni region. She was fluent in English, French and South Slavey.

Mary and Gus met when a forest fire in the Nahanni region in the summer of 1942 destroyed much of Gus' belongings, while they were able to save Mary's goods on an island on the Liard River. They formed a partnership and were married, eventually adopting a son, Mickey. They resided at Gus' lease at the Liard Hot Springs (now named the Kraus Hot Springs) in winter, where they trapped, and Nahanni Butte where in the summers they cooked for oil exploration crews. Their hospitality was well-known, and they received many visitors, including Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. When the Nahanni National Park was created in 1971, the Krauses resettled at Little Doctor Lake, where they continued to receive many of the tourists and visitors who came to the region until they resettled closer to Nahanni Butte in 1989.

Gus Kraus died at the Fort Simpson hospital on December 1, 1992. Mary Kraus died in Fort Simpson in November 2007.