town, southern Fort Smith region, Northwest Territories, Canada, on the southwestern shore of Great Slave Lake. The settlement, at the mouth of the Hay River, was established in 1868 as a Hudson's Bay Company trading post. With the arrival of the Mackenzie Highway in 1949 and the Great Slave Lake Railway in 1964, Hay River (82 miles 【132 km】 north of the Alberta border) became a busy commercial fishing and transshipment centre. Lead and zinc are mined 35 miles (56 km) east at Pine Point. The 103-foot (32-metre) Alexandra Falls on the Hay River are 34 miles (55 km) south of the town. Pop. (2006) 3,648.