Perched on a high bluff overlooking the Mackenzie River, with the rumpled Franklin Range at its back door and the great Mackenzie Mountains rising to the west, this is Wrigley, the northernmost of the Dehcho Dene communities.
Traditionally known as Pedzéh Kı̨́, Wrigley gets its official name from former Hudson’s Bay Company chief commissioner Joseph Wrigley. Various trading posts were established in this area in the early 1800s, including Fort Alexander, Fort Wrigley and Fort of the Small Rapid. The original Fort Wrigley site was vacated in 1965 due to swampy conditions and the government relocated the population 16 kilometres up the Mackenzie to the present hamlet. Today, Wrigley has a population of about 120, most of whom live a traditional lifestyle of trapping, hunting and fishing, just as their ancestors did for millennia.
The community remains intertwined with the incredible wilderness all around it. To the north of the town lies the confluence of the Wrigley River. Take the Mackenzie downstream and at the base of a cliff you’ll find the Roche qui trempe a l’eau sulphur springs — an excellent day trip activity. Within walking distance of Wrigley is the towering Cap Mountain, a 1,228-meter giant and the highest peak in the Franklin Range.
You’ll find Wrigley easily accessible by plane, or it can be reached at the end of the NWT Parks Heritage Route, also known as Highway 1.
