Fireweed Studio, Heritage site and commercial building in Yellowknife, Canada.
Fireweed Studio is a one-storey log cabin with a slightly rectangular footprint, set on a concrete foundation and topped by a front-gabled roof with asphalt shingles and a small modern chimney. The brown-stained logs form saddle joints at the corners. Its only entrance is a vertical flushboard door with rusted metal strap hinges on the east facade, where a sign reads "Fireweed Studio".
The cabin was built in 1939 at Giant Mine to store dynamite used in shaft sinking toward the Brock gold vein. After more secure bunkers were built closer to the shaft, it held reagents and other mining supplies until 1973, when the mining company sold it to the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce for one dollar. The chamber moved it near its present site and opened it as a tourist information centre in 1976.
The cabin is run by the Yellowknife Guild of Arts and Crafts, one of Canada's oldest craft guilds, which moved in after the city tourist centre opened elsewhere in 1992. Members sell their work from the building on Saturdays and holidays through the summer, and since 2013 also on Tuesday evenings to catch the nearby farmers market crowd.
The studio sits on 49th Avenue between 52nd and 53rd streets near City Hall, making it easy to find in the city center. It extends its hours on Tuesday evenings to welcome visitors coming from the nearby farmers market.
The interpretive plaque by the door says the cabin was a blacksmith's shop, but it was actually built in 1939 to store dynamite used in shaft sinking toward the Brock gold vein. The mining company sold it to the Chamber of Commerce for one dollar in 1973.
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