Athabasca River
The Athabasca River is over 1200 km long and flows northeast, from its origin in Jasper
National Park, to its outflow in Lake Athabasca in northeastern Alberta. It passes
through the oil-sands deposits of northern Alberta.
Traditionally, many First Nations groups hunted along the Athabasca River, including
the Shuswap, Kootenay and Salish. Fur traders first established a trading post along
the river in 1778, near the delta. In 1811, Thomas, an Iroquois, and David Thompson, an Englishman, established a route through
the Rockies via the headwaters of one of Athabasca River's tributaries, and named
it Athabasca Pass. The areas they surveyed remained important parts of trade routes
for the remainder of the century.
Jasper National Park, established in 1907, continues to preserve much of the Upper Athabasca area.