The eastern section of the lake narrows to a width of about 1 km (.6 miles) near the community of Fond du Lac located on the northern shore then continues to its most easterly point at the mouth of the Fond du Lac River. Lake Athabasca (French: lac Athabasca) is located at 59° N, in the Canadian provinces Saskatchewan and Alberta. It is also the 8th largest lake in Canada. The lake is also fed by the Peace River. Lake Athabasca (/ˌæθəˈbæskə/; French: lac Athabasca; from Woods Cree: aðapaskāw, "[where] there are plants one after another")[5] is located in the northwest corner of Saskatchewan and the northeast corner of Alberta between 58° and 60° N. The lake is 26% in Alberta and 74% in Saskatchewan. Peter Fidler, a surveyor for the Hudson’s Bay Comany also gave the name to Fidler Point, on the lake’s North shore. The lake was discovered in 1771 by the English explorer Samuel Hearne and was initially called Lake of the Hills. [10] Water flows northward from the lake via the Slave River and Mackenzie River systems, eventually reaching the Arctic Ocean. Lakepedia is the number one online encyclopedia of lakes. [16] Water flows northward from the lake via the Slave River and Mackenzie River systems, eventually reaching the Arctic Ocean. By 1820, George Simpson referred to both the lake and the river as "Athabasca".[9]. Athabasca is also the name of the river that flows into the western part of the lake, which boasts a basin 152,000 sq km in area and a length of 1321 kilometers. Copyright © 2015–2017 Lakepedia.com. Find out all you need to know about one of the most important lakes. Enjoy it responsibly. Its most easterly point is the also the mouth of the Fond du Lac River. However, the area soon changed its profile, when in 1953 highly concentrated Uranium was discovered. It has an elevation of 213 m, a maximum depth of 124 m and a … The southern shore has great beaches and sand dunes that are derived from the Athabasca basin. [14], On October 31, 2013, one of Obed Mountain coal mine's pits failed, and from between 600 million to a billion liters of slurry poured into the Plante and Apetowun Creeks. The dunes were designated a "Provincial Wilderness Park" in 1992. These charts are the 'road maps' that guide mariners safely from port to port. 74% of the lake is in the former province, and 26% in the latter. [15] 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 km (310 mi) away.[15]. Along with other lakes such as the Great Bear Lake and Great Slave Lake, Lake Athabasca is a remnant of the vast Glacial Lake McConnell. The lake’s waters flow northward into the Great Slave Lake through Slave River and the Mackenzie River systems, and it eventually reaches the Arctic Ocean. With an area of 7,935 km 2 and a 2,140 km shoreline, it is the eighth-largest lake in Canada. Other fish species include walleye, yellow perch, northern pike, goldeye, lake whitefish, cisco, Arctic grayling, burbot, white sucker and longnose sucker. By 1801, the name had gained a closer spelling to the current name—Athapaskow Lake. Tributaries of Lake Athabasca include (going clockwise); 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 and Robillard River. The world record lake trout was caught here in 1961, with a weight of 46.3 kg. Get directions, maps, and traffic for Athabasca, AB. Read the fascinating legend of Lake Akan's Marimo. The lakebed formed as a result of glacial erosion, and sits on old precambrian rocks on the Laurentian Plateau. So, another settlement called… Uranium City sprung up. This was changed 7 years later, in 1778, into Athabasca, which means "where there are plants one after another" in the Cree language. There is also a large oil sands mining operation nearby, which is suspected to have increased the pollution levels in the lake. The eastern section of the lake narrows to a width of about 1 km (.6 miles) near the community of Fond du Lac located on the northern shore then continues to its most easterly point at the mouth of the Fond du Lac River. The first mine (from 1967, now part of the Millennium Mine) is visible near the Athabasca River in the 1984 image.