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Owner of Simpson Air and Nahanni Mountain
Lodge, Fort Simpson pilot and businessman
Garry Murtsell has been working tirelessly to
promote and develop tourism in the Northwest
Territories on an international scale.
For many years, the number of visitors to
Nahanni National Park grew consistently and
up until the early 1990s, tourism officials and
the territorial government worked together
to promote the NWT at travel trade shows
throughout North America, the UK, western
Europe and Japan. At that time, Nahanni saw
nearly 1,400 day trip visitors each year, many
arriving on bus tours marketed by Simpson Air,
with Fort Simpson businesses catering to an
average of 16 to 18 tours annually. Once a new
government regime reversed that cooperation,
tourism numbers fell well behind neighboring
provinces, with only about one Nahanni bus tour
scheduled per year.
Fortunately for all, more recent years have seen
an upswing in worldwide travel interest in all that
the Northwest Territories has to offer: pristine
beauty and thunderous waterfalls, glittering
urban centers, festivals celebrating aboriginal
culture and all the arts, and endless outdoor
adventures of a lifetime. Fort Simpson Visitor Center
photo by:
VC TRAVEL GUIDE

breakfasts, restaurants, a wide variety of stores Please see our feature on Hugh Grant and Simpson
carrying everything from groceries to computer Air.
equipment, a nine-hole golf course with club house The Visitor Information Centre is the first building
and pro shop, and nearby territorial campground with on the left as you come into town. The VIC is a
showers and electricity. wealth of information relating to Fort Simpson and
Fort Simpson is rich with artists, offering many arts the area. There is a small museum with displays on
and crafts ranging from traditional birch bark baskets, the history, culture, and geography of the region, as
fine beadwork, moose hair tufting, quillwork, and well as a movie theatre. The VIC is staffed throughout
moccasins, to carvings, paintings, and custom made the summer months providing helpful information to
knives. all visitors as well as guided historic walking tours
Known as the “Gateway to the Nahanni,” Fort of town covering prospector Albert Faille’s cabin, the
Simpson is the jumping-off point for visitors traveling Papal Grounds, and Fort Simpson Heritage Park, a
to the Nahanni National Park Reserve. Visit a small likely location of the first trading post.
lodge on a mountain lake or travel the North Nahanni
River by jet boat on a camping trip into the Nahanni SPECIAL EVENTS
Range. The administration office for Nahanni is in Beavertail Jamboree: March
Fort Simpson and provides information, reservation, Open Sky Creative Society Festival: early July
and registration services. Deh Cho Friendship Centre’s Aboriginal Day
Air charter companies based in Fort Simpson Golf Tournament: June
offer visitors service into Nahanni and surrounding John Tsetso Memorial Library Christmas
communities within the Deh Cho region, for flight- Bazaar: November
seeing and fly-in canoeing, camping, and fishing. Merchants Bonspiel: January

Fort Simpson, NWT...

gateway to the Nahanni.
INQUIRIES TO:
OUR SERVICES INCLUDE: Village of Fort Simpson
•Large Territorial Campground 9401 100 Street
with showers and power Box 438 • Fort Simpson, NT X0E 0N0
•Historic Heritage Park Ph: 867.695.3182 Fax: 867.695.2005
•Many local outfitters and www.fortsimpson.com
suppliers of tourism products
•Experienced air charter companies
connecting to the Nahanni Park
•Craft shops and Dene artwork
•Full service gas stations
•Hiking trails
•Great restaurants

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