Lake Athabasca (/ˌæθəˈbæskə/ATH-ə-BASK-ə; French: lac Athabasca; from Woods Cree:ᐊᖬᐸᐢᑳᐤ[6]aðapaskāw, "[where] there are plants one after another")[7] is in the north-west corner of Saskatchewan and the north-east corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N in Canada. The lake is about 30% in Alberta and 70% in Saskatchewan.[8]
The name in the Woods Cree language originally referred only to the Peace–Athabasca Delta formed by the confluence of the Peace and Athabasca rivers at the southwest corner of the lake. Prior to 1789, Sir Alexander Mackenzie explored the lake.[9][10] In 1791, Philip Turnor, cartographer for the Hudson's Bay Company, wrote in his journal, "low swampy ground on the South side with a few willows growing upon it, from which the Lake in general takes its name Athapison in the Southern Cree tongue which signifies open country such as lakes with willows and grass growing about them".[11]Peter Fidler originally recorded the name for the river in 1790 as the Great Arabuska. By 1801, the name had gained a closer spelling to the current name—Athapaskow Lake. By 1820, George Simpson referred to both the lake and the river as "Athabasca".[12]
Geography
Mackenzie River drainage basin showing Lake Athabasca's position south of Great Slave Lake
The lake covers 7,849 square kilometres (3,031 sq mi) or 7,935 square kilometres (3,064 sq mi) including islands,[4] is 283 kilometres (176 mi) long, has a maximum width of 50 kilometres (31 mi), and a maximum depth of 124 metres (407 ft), and holds 204 cubic kilometres (49 cu mi) of water, making it the largest and one of the deepest lakes in both Alberta and Saskatchewan (nearby Tazin Lake is deeper), and the eighth largest in Canada.[8] Water flows northward from the lake via the Slave River and Mackenzie River systems, eventually reaching the Arctic Ocean.
Fort Chipewyan, one of the oldest European settlements in Alberta, is on the western shore of the lake, where the Rivière des Rochers drains the lake and flows toward Slave River, beginning its northward journey along the eastern boundary of Wood Buffalo National Park. The eastern section of the lake narrows to a width of about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) near the community of Fond du Lac on the northern shore then continues to its most easterly point at the mouth of the Fond du Lac River.
Tributaries of Lake Athabasca include (going clockwise):[14][15]
Fond du Lac River
Otherside River
Helmer Creek
MacFarlane River
Archibald River
William River
Ennuyeuse Creek
Dumville Creek
Debussac Creek
Jackfish Creek
Claussen Creek
Old Fort River
Crown Creek
Athabasca River
Colin River
Oldman River
Bulyea River
Grease River
Robillard River
History
First Nations have lived in the area for more than 2,000 years. In the era of the North American fur trade, the lake was a pivotal point, since it was as far west as canoes could travel from the east and still return before freeze-up. The first European settlement on Lake Athabasca is Fort Chipewyan, founded as a North West Company (NWC) trading post in 1788. Its original location was Old Fort Point, on the southwest shore west of the Old Fort River. In 1798, Fort Chipewyan was relocated to its current site on the north shore.[5][8]
In fall 1790, Malcolm Ross, Peter Fidler, Philip Turnor, and others, all working for the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), travelled from Cumberland House to Île-à-la-Crosse, and on to Lake Athabasca the following spring. They established a HBC fur trade post on the south-west shore of the lake, opposite Fort Chipewyan. The HBC post, also called Athapescow Lake, was abandoned in 1792.[16]
In 1802, the HBC set up another post on English Island at the lake's outlet, called Nottingham House, but was abandoned in 1806. In 1815, the HBC tried competing again with the NWC and founded Fort Wedderburn on Coal or Potato Island. When the HBC and NWC merged in 1821, Fort Wedderburn was also abandoned by moving all operations to Fort Chipewyan.[17]
Development and environment
Uranium and gold mining along the northern shore resulted in the birth of Uranium City, Saskatchewan, which was home to mine workers and their families. While the last mine closed in the 1980s, the effects of mining operations had already heavily contaminated the northern shores. The large oil sands mining nearby is suspected to have added to the current pollution levels in the lake.[18]
On October31, 2013, one of Obed Mountain coal mine's pits failed, and from between 600 million to a billion litres of slurry poured into the Plante and Apetowun Creeks.[19] The plume of waste products then joined the Athabasca River, travelling downstream for a month before settling in Lake Athabasca near Fort Chipewyan, over 500 kilometres (310 mi) away.[19]
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Elizabeth Southren (January 8, 2013). "Deep in Canadian Lakes, Signs of Tar Sands Pollution". National Public Radio. Archived from the original on May 7, 2013. Canadian researchers have used the mud at the bottom of lakes like a time machine to show that tar sands oil production in Alberta, Canada, is polluting remote regional lakes as far as 50 miles from the operations.
