Mayo is a village in Yukon, Canada, along the Silver Trail and the Stewart River. It had a population of 200 in 2016.[4] The Yukon Bureau of Statistics estimated a population of 496 in 2019.[5] It is also the home of the First Nation of Na-Cho Nyak Dun, whose primary speak the northern variety of the Tutchone language. Na-Cho Nyäk Dun translates into "big river people."
The community, formerly called Mayo Landing, is serviced by Mayo Airport. The village was named after former circus acrobat turned settler and explorer Alfred Mayo.[2]
Its only school is the J.V. Clark School, which is named after James Vincent Clark (1924–1994). As of December 2022 the school had 46 students with 34 in primary and 12 in secondary.[6]As of the 2023 - 2024 school year the principal is Douglas Cooper.[7]
History
Before Europeans came there were in the area two communities of the Na-cho Nyäk Dun people, who lived by hunting and trapping. The river now known as the Stewart River was known as the "Náhcho Nyäk" ('Great River'). The people lived across the Stewart River from the main focus of today's Mayo, in a district today called "Old Mayo village". The old settlement was reinstated on the initiative of a missionary, but in 1934 the river burst its banks and flattened much of the old village, destroying the church and many cultural treasures.
The first gold discoveries in the area were made in the 1880s: silver was also discovered some time later. Until the middle of the 20th century Mayo was only connected with the outside world by the river and received any supplies by boat. In the 1950s the construction of the Klondike Highway and the Silver Trail provided Mayo with a road link to Stewart Crossing.
Between 1973 and 1984 negotiation took place between the government and Northern Tutchone leaders over land rights and self-government. A breakthrough came only in 1993 with a treaty[8] between the residents and the lawmakers concerning an area of 4,739 km2 (1,830 sq mi)[9] and a payment, over fifteen years, totalling C$14.5 million.
May 2008 saw a preliminary agreement with Alexco Resource Corp concerning silver extraction in the Keno Hill Silver area near the far end of Mayo Lake (approximately 45 km (28 mi) northeast of the village) where the corporation operates approximately 40 silver mines.[10]
In the 2021 Canadian census conducted by Statistics Canada, Mayo had a population of 188 living in 108 of its 149 total private dwellings, a change of -6% from its 2016 population of 200. With a land area of 0.98 km2 (0.38 sq mi), it had a population density of 191.8/km2 (496.9/sq mi) in 2021.[4]
Geography
Climate
Mayo has a subarctic climate (Köppen: Dfc), with generally warm summers and severely cold winters lasting half the year. Spring and autumn are very short transitional seasons between summer and winter, with average temperatures rising and falling very fast during these times.
The temperature difference between the record low in February (−62.2 °C [−80.0 °F]) and the record high in June (36.1 °C (97.0 °F)) is (−98.3 °C (−176.9 °F)), one of the largest temperature differentials ever recorded.[citation needed] It has some of the warmest summers in the Yukon with a mean average summer temperature of 14.5 °C (58.1 °F).
^"Table 6: Population by census subdivisions, 1901–1961". 1961 Census of Canada(PDF). Series 1.1: Historical, 1901–1961. Vol. I: Population. Ottawa: Dominion Bureau of Statistics. 8 March 1963. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
^"Table 2: Population of Census Subdivisions, 1921–1971". 1971 Census of Canada(PDF). Population. Vol. Census Subdivisions (Historical). Ottawa: Statistics Canada. July 1973. Retrieved 30 January 2022.
