Fort MacKay
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Fort MacKay Fort McKay |
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| Hamlet | |
Aerial view of Fort McKay
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 Fort MacKay
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| Coordinates: 57°11′12″N 111°38′12″W / 57.18676°N 111.63676°WCoordinates: 57°11′12″N 111°38′12″W / 57.18676°N 111.63676°W | |
| Country | Canada |
| Province | Alberta |
| Census division | No. 16 |
| Specialized municipality | RM of Wood Buffalo |
| Established | 1820 |
| Named | 1912 |
| Government | |
| • Mayor | Melissa Blake |
| • Governing body |
Wood Buffalo Municipal Council
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| Area | |
| • Total | 8.17 km2 (3.15 sq mi) |
| Elevation | 260 m (850 ft) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Total | 562 |
| • Density | 68.8/km2 (178/sq mi) |
| Time zone | MST (UTC-7) |
| • Summer (DST) | MDT (UTC-6) |
| Postal code span | T0P |
| Area code(s) | 780, 587, 825 |
| Highways | Highway 63 |
| Waterways | Athabasca River |
| Website | RM of Wood Buffalo |
Fort MacKay, or Fort McKay, is a community in northeast Alberta, Canada that is located at the confluence of the Athabasca and MacKay rivers. It is approximately 54 km (34 mi) north of Fort McMurray via Highway 63 and Fort McKay Road. The community has an elevation of 260 m (850 ft).
The majority of the community, known as Fort McKay, is situated on lands of the Fort McKay First Nation (FMFN). The smaller portion of the community, known as Fort MacKay, is located adjacent to the FMFN lands to the south within the Regional Municipality (RM) of Wood Buffalo. The portion of the community within the RM of Wood Buffalo is designated as a hamlet.
The community was named in 1912 after Dr. Williams Morrison McKay, the first president of the Northern Alberta Medical Association. Despite this, the official spelling of the hamlet's name is Fort MacKay according to the RM of Wood Buffalo and Alberta Municipal Affairs. The community's name is spelled Fort McKay by the Fort McKay First Nation. In August 2012, the Fort McKay Métis Community requested the RM of Wood Buffalo to change the name of the hamlet to Fort McKay.
On May 7, 2016, Fort McKay, which hosted 5,000 evacuees from Fort McMurray, was itself put under an evacuation notice due to the northward advance of the Fort McMurray wildfire toward the community.
Fort MacKay has a subarctic climate (Köppen climate classification Dfc). and falls into the NRC Plant Hardiness Zone 3a. Summers are mild and short, and winters can be long and cold.
In the RM of Wood Buffalo's 2015 municipal census, the hamlet portion of the community (Fort MacKay) had a population of 51, a −13.6% change from its 2012 municipal census population of 59.
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