| Slave River | |
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Slave River Watershed |
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| Origin | Peace-Athabasca Delta |
| Mouth | Great Slave Lake |
| Basin countries | Canada |
| Length | 434 kilometres (270 mi) |
| Source elevation | 210 metres (690 ft) |
| Mouth elevation | 160 metres (520 ft) |
| Avg. discharge | 3,414 cubic metres per second (120,600 cu ft/s) max: 7,930 cubic metres per second (280,000 cu ft/s) min: 543 cubic metres per second (19,200 cu ft/s) (for Fitzgerald, Alberta) |
| Basin area | 616,400 square kilometres (238,000 sq mi) |
The Slave River is a Canadian river that flows from Lake Athabasca in northeastern Alberta and empties into Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories.
This river's name is thought to come from the Athabaskan "Deh Gah Got'ine", the name for the Slavey group of the Dene First Nations[1] and has nothing to do with slavery. The Chipewyan had displaced other native people from this region.
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The Slave River and the rapids around Fort Smith are some of the best whitewater kayaking in the world. There are four sets of rapids: Pelican, Rapids of the Drowned, Mountain Portage, and Cassette. The rapids range from easy class I to unrunnable killer class VI holes. Huge volume, massive waves, and the home of the northern most river pelican colony in North America characterize this river. The pelicans nest on many of the islands at the aptly named Mountain Portage Rapids. These islands serve as a sanctuary to the birds and are closed to human traffic from April 15 to September 15. It is very important to respect these regulations as human intrusions into the pelican nesting area cause widespread nest abandonment.
Boaters have been killed in the Slave River rapids. The earliest recorded fatalities occurred as a part of Grant's ill fated expedition on the far river right of the Rapids of the Drowned (a class IV feature). A more recent fatality occurred in the Land of a Thousand Holes (class IV).
Slave River originates in the Peace-Athabasca Delta, at the forks of Peace River and Riviere Des Roches, which drains the Athabasca River and Lake Athabasca. The Slave River then flows north into the Northwest Territories and into the Great Slave Lake north of Fort Resolution. Water from this river reaches the Arctic Ocean through the Mackenzie River.
The river is 434 km in length, and has a cumulative drainage area of 616,400 km².[2]
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