Nechako Country

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The Nechako Country, also referred to as the Nechako District or simply "the Nechako" is one of the historical geographic regions of the Canadian province of British Columbia, located southwest of the city of Prince George and south of Hwy 16 on the inland side of the Hazelton Mountains (an inland subrange of the Coast Mountains), and comprising the basin of the Nechako River and its tributaries. "Nechako" is an anglicization of netʃa koh, its name in the indigenous Carrier language which means "big river".

The area is sparsely populated, mostly by members of the Carrier people, and is noted for its many large lakes, including Ootsa Lake Reservoir, which is the source of water for the Kemano Powerhouse on a neighbouring coastal inlet, which is the power supply for the aluminum smelter at Kitimat.

To the north of the Nechako Country are the Omineca Country and Bulkley Valley, while to its south is the Chilcotin Country and to the southeast the Cariboo Country.

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Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako Regional district in British Columbia, Canada

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Nechako River

The Nechako River arises on the Nechako Plateau east of the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains of British Columbia, Canada, and flows north toward Fort Fraser, then east to Prince George where it enters the Fraser River. "Nechako" is an anglicization of netʃa koh, its name in the indigenous Carrier language which means "big river".

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Omineca Mountains

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Hazelton Mountains

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Nechako Plateau

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The Kenney Dam is a rock-fill embankment dam on the Nechako River in northwestern British Columbia, built in the early 1950s. The impoundment of water behind the dam forms the Nechako Reservoir, which is also commonly known as the Ootsa Lake Reservoir. The dam was constructed to power an aluminum smelter in Kitimat, British Columbia by Alcan, although in the late 1980s the company increased their economic activity by selling excess electricity across North America. The development of the dam caused various environmental problems along with the displacement of the Cheslatta T'En First Nation, whose traditional land was flooded.

Nechako Reservoir

The Nechako Reservoir, sometimes called the Ootsa Lake Reservoir, is a hydroelectric reservoir in British Columbia, Canada that was formed by the Kenney Dam making a diversion of the Nechako River through a 16-km intake tunnel in the Kitimat Ranges of the Coast Mountains to the 890 MW Kemano Generating Station at sea level at Kemano to service the then-new Alcan aluminum smelter at Kitimat. When it was constructed on the Nechako River in 1952, it resulted in the relocation of over 75 families. It was one of the biggest reservoirs built in Canada until the completion of the Columbia Treaty Dams and the W.A.C. Bennett Dam that created Lake Williston. The water level may swing 10 feet between 2790 and 2800 feet.

Knewstubb Lake Lake in British Columbia, Canada

Knewstubb Lake is an arm or stretch of the Ootsa Lake Reservoir in the Nechako Country of the western Central Interior of British Columbia, Canada. It forms part of the south arm of the reservoir, which includes adjoining stretches such as Eutsuk Lake and Natalkuz Lake, which are "upstream" to the southwest. Ootsa Lake was formed by the damming and diversion of the flow of the Nechako River, the bulk of which is now drained beneath the spine of the Coast Mountains to the west to the Kemano Powerhouse, which is the power supply for the aluminum smelter at Kitimat, to the southeast of Terrace.

The Cheslatta Carrier Nation or Cheslatta T'En, of the Dakelh or Carrier people (Ta-cullies, meaning "people who go upon water", whose traditional lands where originally where the Kitimat Kemano Project I was built, form a large portion of the Central Interior of present-day British Columbia, Canada, is a First Nation of the Nechako River at the headwaters of the Fraser River.

The Nechako Region is the second-largest economic development region in British Columbia and covers an area of 200,023 km2, from the Nechako plateau, in central British Columbia, northward to the border with Yukon Territory.

The Cheslatta River is a tributary of the Nechako River, one of the main tributaries of the Fraser River, in the Canadian province of British Columbia. It flows through the Nechako Plateau. Before the construction of Kenney Dam in the early 1950s the Cheslatta was a minor tributary of the Nechako. Today the Nechako River is dry above the Cheslatta, which provides all its source water.

Cheslatta Lake

Cheslatta Lake is a large freshwater lake located between François Lake and the western end of the Nechako Reservoir, Range 4 Coast Land District. It is in the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako, British Columbia.