Buffalo Narrows sits at the "Narrows" between Peter Pond Lake and Churchill Lake, and its story begins with the Dene. The community grew up around an earlier Dene settlement. In September 1875, John Macoun, travelling the fur trade route from Methye Portage to Lac Île-à-la-Crosse, reached the Narrows and stayed about four days at a place he called Chipewyan House, at the eastern end of the Narrows, where the Chipewyans had built several houses. It was probably a small Hudson's Bay Company outpost.
In the early 20th century, Scandinavian traders founded the settlement as a trapping, mink ranching and fishing community. French speakers called it Détroit du Boeuf. The lakes themselves were renamed along the way: Buffalo Lake became Peter Pond Lake in 1932, and Clearwater Lake became Churchill Lake in 1944.
A ferry began carrying traffic across the Kisis Channel, which links the two lakes, in 1957, and a bridge replaced it in 1981. In 2003 the Buffalo Narrows Sand Dunes Park, with its long sandy beach on Peter Pond Lake, was transferred from the Crown to the village, which now looks after its upkeep and development. Today tourism, logging and fishing are the main economic activities.
Written from Wikipedia’s article “Buffalo Narrows” (CC BY-SA 4.0), and shared under the same licence.