Abraham Lake | |
---|---|
Location | Clearwater County, Alberta |
Coordinates | 52°13′25″N116°25′38″W / 52.22361°N 116.42722°W |
Type | Reservoir |
Etymology | Silas Abraham |
Primary inflows | North Saskatchewan River |
Primary outflows | North Saskatchewan River |
Basin countries | Canada |
Max. length | 32 km (20 mi) |
Max. width | 3.3 km (2.1 mi) |
Surface area | 53.7 km2 (20.7 sq mi) |
Surface elevation | 1,340 m (4,400 ft) |
Abraham Lake, also known as Lake Abraham, is an artificial lake and Alberta's largest reservoir. It is located in the "Kootenay Plains area of the Canadian Rockies' front range", on the North Saskatchewan River in western Alberta, Canada. [1]
Abraham Lake has a surface area of 53.7 km2 (20.7 sq mi) and a length of 32 km (20 mi). [2] Although man-made, the lake has the blue color of other glacial lakes in the Rocky Mountains, which is caused by rock flour. [3]
Abraham Mountain, Elliott Peak, and the Cline River Heliport are located on the western shore of the lake. Mount Michener is situated on the eastern shore. Mount Ernest Ross lies at the southern tip of the lake.
Abraham Lake was created by the former Calgary Power Company, now TransAlta, in 1972, with the construction of the Bighorn Dam. [4] Planning of the dam involved no evaluation of the social and environmental effects it may have caused and no public hearings were held prior to the construction. Construction of the Bighorn Dam flooded the Kootenay Plains and stopped the livelihood (hunting and fur trapping) of the Bighorn band of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation that had lived in that area. It had flooded their cabins, graves and pastures. [5]
The lake was built on the upper course of the North Saskatchewan River, in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, and lines David Thompson Highway between Saskatchewan River Crossing and Nordegg.
The Government of Alberta sponsored a contest to name the lake in February 1972, during the final stages of construction of the Bighorn Dam. Students across the province were asked to submit names taking into consideration "historical significance, prominent persons, geography and topography, and the value of the lake." [6] It was eventually named after Silas Abraham (c. 1870 – 1964), of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation and originally from Morley, Alberta. [7] He was a farmer and hunter who lived in the Kootenay Plains and later on the Big Horn 144A reserve. [8] [9]
Trapped methane causes frozen bubbles to form under the ice on the lake's surface. This phenomenon results when decaying plants on the lake bed release methane gas, which creates bubbles that become trapped within the ice, in suspended animation, just below the surface as the lake begins to freeze. The visual effects formed by the resulting stacks of bubbles, frozen while rising toward the surface, combined with the clear blue water, have made Abraham Lake a popular destination for photographers and nature observers. [10] [11] The ice coverage of the lakes varies throughout the winter. Abraham Lake is usually frozen by late December. Ideal viewing of the ice bubble season is from mid-January to mid-February. [12]
Banff National Park is Canada's first national park, established in 1885 as Rocky Mountains Park. Located in Alberta's Rocky Mountains, 110–180 kilometres (68–112 mi) west of Calgary, Banff encompasses 6,641 square kilometres (2,564 sq mi) of mountainous terrain, with many glaciers and ice fields, dense coniferous forest, and alpine landscapes. Provincial forests and Yoho National Park are neighbours to the west, while Kootenay National Park is located to the south and Kananaskis Country to the southeast. The main commercial centre of the park is the town of Banff, in the Bow River valley.
The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people, also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota, are a First Nations/Native American people originally from the Northern Great Plains of North America.
Clearwater County is a municipal district in west central Alberta, Canada in Division No. 9. Its northwest boundary is the Brazeau River. The municipal office is located in the Town of Rocky Mountain House. The county has a land area of 18,691.65 km2 (7,216.89 sq mi) and comprises close to 99% of Census Division No. 9's land area of 18,921.38 km2 (7,305.59 sq mi). Although the territory excluded is rather small in geographical area, it comprises the major population centre of Rocky Mountain House, which has one-third of Division No. 9's population, in addition to the communities of Caroline, Burnstick Lake and three Indian reserves. The county's 2021 census population was 11,865.
Peter Lougheed Provincial Park is in Kananaskis Country about 90 kilometres (56 mi) west of Calgary, along the Kananaskis Trail in Alberta, Canada.
The Nakoda are an Indigenous people in Western Canada and the United States.
Stoney 142, 143, 144 is an Indian reserve of the Stoney Nakoda First Nation, comprising Bearspaw, Chiniki, and Wesley First Nations in Alberta, located between the Municipal District of Bighorn No. 8 and Rocky View County. The largest community of the Nakoda people, it is 56 kilometers west of Calgary.
Seebe is a former hamlet and ghost town in Alberta, Canada, within the Municipal District of Bighorn No. 8. It is a former Calgary Power Company Ltd. employee townsite that was closed on August 31, 2004.
Nordegg is a hamlet in west-central Alberta, Canada within Clearwater County. It is in the North Saskatchewan River valley in the foothills of the Canadian Rockies, just east of the intersection of the David Thompson Highway and the Highway 734 spur of the Bighorn Highway. A former coal mining town, it was named after Martin Nordegg and the name probably means "North Corner" in a German dialect. The railway station name at the locality was called Brazeau rather than Nordegg at certain points in its history, but the local post office has always been named Nordegg. The name Brazeau is now obsolete.
The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventually into the Hudson Bay.
The Brazeau River is a river in western Alberta, Canada. It is a major tributary of the North Saskatchewan River.
Alberta's Rockies comprise the Canadian Rocky Mountains in Alberta, Canada. On the southwestern part of the province along the British Columbia border, the region covers all but the south of Census Division 15.
Lake Louise is a glacial lake within Banff National Park in Alberta, Canada. Situated 11 km (6.8 mi) east of the border with British Columbia, Lake Louise is located 5 km (3.1 mi) west of the hamlet of Lake Louise and the Trans-Canada Highway.
Bighorn Dam is an embankment dam in Clearwater County in west-central Alberta, Canada. It was built by Calgary Power in 1972, and led to the creation of Lake Abraham, Alberta's largest reservoir. The dam and associated hydroelectric plant are managed by TransAlta.
Crescent Falls is a series of two waterfalls located on the Bighorn River in the Bighorn River Canyon in west-central Alberta, Canada. They were originally called the Bighorn Falls, after the river they are located on. The current name is a reference to the crescent cliff over which they drop.
Saskatchewan River fur trade The Saskatchewan River was one of the two main axes of Canadian expansion west of Lake Winnipeg. The other and more important one was northwest to the Athabasca Country. For background see Canadian canoe routes (early). The main trade route followed the North Saskatchewan River and Saskatchewan River, which were just south of the forested beaver country. The South Saskatchewan River was a prairie river with few furs.
The Iron Confederacy or Iron Confederation was a political and military alliance of Plains Indians of what is now Western Canada and the northern United States. This confederacy included various individual bands that formed political, hunting and military alliances in defense against common enemies. The ethnic groups that made up the Confederacy were the branches of the Cree that moved onto the Great Plains around 1740, the Saulteaux, the Nakoda or Stoney people also called Pwat or Assiniboine, and the Métis and Haudenosaunee. The Confederacy rose to predominance on the northern Plains during the height of the North American fur trade when they operated as middlemen controlling the flow of European goods, particularly guns and ammunition, to other Indigenous nations, and the flow of furs to the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) and North West Company (NWC) trading posts. Its peoples later also played a major part in the bison (buffalo) hunt, and the pemmican trade. The decline of the fur trade and the collapse of the bison herds sapped the power of the Confederacy after the 1860s, and it could no longer act as a barrier to U.S. and Canadian expansion.
Thomas Edmonds Wilson was a Canadian outfitter and guide.
Abraham Mountain is a 2,820-metre (9,250-foot) mountain summit located in the North Saskatchewan River valley of the Canadian Rockies of Alberta, Canada. Its nearest higher peak is Allstones Peak, 2.0 km (1.2 mi) to the west. Abraham Mountain can be seen from David Thompson Highway and Abraham Lake. Precipitation runoff from Abraham Mountain drains east into Abraham Lake.
The Ghost River is a river in Alberta, Canada. It begins within the front ranges of the Canadian Rocky Mountains, joining the Bow River at Ghost Lake. These waters flow through Cochrane, Calgary, and ultimately into Hudson Bay. The upper reaches of the Ghost are fully protected by the Ghost River Wilderness Area.
The Rocky Mountain Outlook is a weekly local newspaper based in Canmore, Alberta, Canada. The Rocky Mountain Outlook is delivered across the Bow Valley in Banff, Canmore, Lake Louise, the Municipal District of Bighorn and the Stoney Nakoda First Nation. The paper covers news in and around the Bow Valley region, which spans from Lake Louise in the west to the Stoney Nakoda First Nation and Kananaskis Country in the east. The paper does not charge readers and relies on advertising for income.