View west of Jonas Sangris on the north shore of McMeekan Bay near the south end of the proposed portage.

In 2006, Jean Bussey of Points West Heritage Consulting Ltd. conducted archaeological investigations for the Joint Venture that operates the Tibbitt to Contwoyto (formerly the Lupin) winter road. The main winter road runs from the south end of Tibbitt Lake near Yellowknife to almost the north end of Contwoyto Lake in Nunavut. In late 2006, a secondary route was identified at the southern end of this winter road. If used, this secondary route will head west from West Bay on Gordon Lake to the vicinity of the old Discovery Mine and then south to Prosperous Lake, which is accessible by paved road. This is an existing winter road that is currently operated under permit to Robinson Trucking Ltd. (RTL). Because it is an existing route and was not identified to Points West until October, archaeological field investigations were restricted to a proposed new portage at the south end.

View of main body of Prosperous Lake from elevated area east of the north end of the proposed portage.

The proposed portage will cross a narrow (maximum 250 m) peninsula of land north of McMeekan Bay and south of the main body of Prosperous Lake. The portage will only be 15 m in width, but because a final route has not been selected, a much wider low-lying area between two elevated bedrock outcrops was examined. It was determined that provided the bedrock outcrops are avoided, the low lying terrain between them is suggestive of low archaeological potential and no further archaeological investigation is required.

The work was conducted on October 18 in company with Jonas Sangris of the Yellowknives Dene First Nation and four other individuals who were undertaking environmental and route feasibility studies. Since the portion of this proposed secondary route from Prosperous Lake to the old Discovery Mine was examined for archaeological resources by Gabriella Prager of Points West in 2005, no further work is required along this portion of the existing RTL route. However, if this secondary route is used, the portion that connects with West Bay on Gordon Lake should be examined in 2007 when weather conditions are favourable.