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The Continental Divide of the Americas is the principal, and largely mountainous, hydrological divide of the Americas. The Continental Divide extends from the Bering Strait to the Strait of Magellan, and separates the watersheds that drain into the Pacific Ocean from those river systems that drain into the Atlantic and Arctic Ocean, including those that drain into the Gulf of Mexico, the Caribbean Sea, and Hudson Bay.
Jasper National Park, in Alberta, Canada, is the largest national park within Alberta's Rocky Mountains, spanning 11,000 km2 (4,200 sq mi). It was established as Jasper Forest Park in 1907, renamed as a national park in 1930, and declared a UNESCO world heritage site in 1984. Its location is north of Banff National Park and west of Edmonton. The park contains the glaciers of the Columbia Icefield, springs, lakes, waterfalls and mountains.
The Athabasca River is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than 1,231 km (765 mi) before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is protected in national and provincial parks, and the river is designated a Canadian Heritage River for its historical and cultural importance. The scenic Athabasca Falls is located about 30 km (19 mi) upstream from Jasper.
Lake Athabasca 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 26% in Alberta and 74% in Saskatchewan.
Jasper is a specialized municipality and townsite in western Alberta within the Canadian Rockies. The townsite is in the Athabasca River valley and is the commercial centre of Jasper National Park.
The Peace River is a 1,923-kilometre-long (1,195 mi) river in Canada that originates in the Rocky Mountains of northern British Columbia and flows to the northeast through northern Alberta. The Peace River joins the Athabasca River in the Peace-Athabasca Delta to form the Slave River, a tributary of the Mackenzie River. The Finlay River, the main headwater of the Peace River, is regarded as the ultimate source of the Mackenzie River. The combined Finlay–Peace–Slave–Mackenzie river system is the 13th longest river system in the world.
Sir George Simpson was a Scottish explorer and colonial governor of the Hudson's Bay Company during the period of its greatest power. From 1820 to 1860, he was in practice, if not in law, the British viceroy for the whole of Rupert's Land, an enormous territory of 3.9 millions square kilometres corresponding to nearly forty per cent of modern-day Canada.
Fort Assiniboine is a hamlet in northwest Alberta, Canada, within Woodlands County. It is located along the north shore of the Athabasca River at the junction of Highway 33 and Highway 661. It is approximately 39 kilometres (24 mi) northwest of Barrhead, 62 kilometres (39 mi) southeast of Swan Hills and 91 kilometres (57 mi) northeast of Whitecourt.
Triple Divide Peak is located in the Lewis Range, part of the Rocky Mountains in North America. The peak is a feature of Glacier National Park in the state of Montana in the United States. The summit of the peak, the hydrological apex of the North American continent, is the point where two of the principal continental divides in North America converge, the Continental Divide of the Americas and the Northern or Laurentian Divide.
Athabasca Pass is a high mountain pass in the Canadian Rockies on the border between Alberta and British Columbia. In fur trade days it connected Jasper House on the Athabasca River with Boat Encampment on the Columbia River.
The Columbia District was a fur trading district in the Pacific Northwest region of British North America in the 19th century. Much of its territory overlapped with the disputed Oregon Country. It was explored by the North West Company between 1793 and 1811, and established as an operating fur district around 1810. The North West Company was absorbed into the Hudson's Bay Company in 1821 under which the Columbia District became known as the Columbia Department. The Oregon Treaty of 1846 marked the effective end of the Hudson's Bay Company's Columbia Department.
The Tonquin Valley is located in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada, next to the border of the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, an area which is also the continental divide, running along the peaks of the South Jasper Range which rise above Amethyst Lake. Tonquin Creek drains Moat Lake and flows west into Mount Robson Provincial Park in British Columbia, and empties into the Fraser River. The Astoria River drains south and east into the Athabasca River.
Divide Creek is a short creek near Kicking Horse Pass on the British Columbia/Alberta border. After following the Continental Divide of the Americas for a short distance, the creek forks, with one side draining through the Bow River east to Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean, and the other side draining west to the Pacific Ocean by way of the Kicking Horse River.
Beaver River is a large river in east-central Alberta and central Saskatchewan, Canada. It flows east through Alberta and Saskatchewan and then turns sharply north to flow into Lac Île-à-la-Crosse on the Churchill River which flows into Hudson Bay.
The York Factory Express, usually called "the Express" and also the Columbia Express and the Communication, was a 19th-century fur brigade operated by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Roughly 4,200 kilometres (2,600 mi) in length, it was the main overland connection between HBC headquarters at York Factory and the principal depot of the Columbia Department, Fort Vancouver.
Boat Encampment is a ghost town in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The locality was at the tip of the Big Bend on the north shore of the Columbia River. The general vicinity, on the former Big Bend Highway, was by road about 151 kilometres (94 mi) northwest of Golden and 159 kilometres (99 mi) north of Revelstoke.
The Wood River, which flows in a southwesterly direction, is in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The former confluence was near the top of the Big Bend of the Columbia River. After the enlarged Kinbasket Lake formed the Mica Dam reservoir, the flow entered Wood Arm.
Simpson Pass, el. 2,107 m (6,913 ft), is a mountain pass on the border between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, in the area of the Ball Range. It is the prominence col for Mount Ball on the Continental Divide in the vicinity of Sunshine Village ski resort. Simpson River and Simpson Pass are named after Sir George Simpson who first explored the area in 1841.
This article covers the water based Canadian canoe routes used by early explorers of Canada with special emphasis on the fur trade.
References
- ↑ Morse, Eric, Fur Trade Routes of Canada / Then and Now, pp. 101, 103. NorthWord Press, 1969. ISBN 1 55971 045 4.
- ↑ MacClaren, I.S. et al., Culturing Wilderness in Jasper National Park: Studies in Two Centuries of Human History in the Upper Athabasca River Watershed, pp. 60-61. University of Alberta, 2012.
- ↑ Akrigg, G.P.V.; Akrigg, Helen B. (1986), British Columbia Place Names (3rd, 1997 ed.), Vancouver: UBC Press, p. 52, ISBN 0-7748-0636-2
- ↑ Athabasca Pass National Historic Site of Canada . Canadian Register of Historic Places . Retrieved 30 November 2012.
- ↑ Merck, Frederick, Fur Trade and Empire: George Simpson's Journal : Remarks Connected with the Fur Trade in the Course of a Voyage from York Factory to Fort George and Back to York Factory 1824-1825, Together with Accompanying Documents, p. 34. Harvard University Press, 1931.
- ↑ Whittaker, John A., "Athbasca Pass — BC — Alberta Heritage Trail", British Columbia History, Vol. 44, No. 2, Summer 2011, p. 19. Victoria: British Columbia Historical Federation.
- ↑ Anderson, Nancy Marguerite, The York Factory Express, Ronsdale Press (2021), pp. 73-78.