Fort Chipewyan is the oldest continuously settled community in Alberta. The settlement was established when the North West Company set up a trading post on the northwestern tip of Lake Athabasca in 1778, and was named after the Chipewyan First Nations people native to the area.

The primary mode of transportation into and from historical Fort Chipewyan is by air, as there aren't any permanent all-season roads in the area. In the winter months, ice roads connect Fort Chipewyan to Fort McMurray in the south and Fort Smith in the north. In the summer, the community can also be reached by boating approximately 280 kilometres of the winding and scenic Athabasca River.

Tourism is a growing industry in Fort Chipewyan, especially in the summer months. The lakes of the northern Wood Buffalo region boast an amazing array of fish, which has lead to a thriving fly-in fishing industry. As well, the boreal forests of northern Alberta play host to a wide range of hunting opportunities–the area is particularly well known among huntsmen from the western United States, over a thousand kilometres to the south! For the naturalist, a visit to Wood Buffalo National Park is an essential exploration of one of Canada's foremost protected areas. Wood Buffalo N.P. is Canada's largest national park (at almost 45 000 square kilometres), established in 1992 to protect the last free-roaming herds of bison in North America. Today, it shelters an outstanding and representative example of Canada's northern boreal plains biome.