ATHABASKA 



451 



ATHAPASCAN INDIANS 



It is the seat of Midland College (Lutheran), 

 Saint Benedict's College (Roman Catholic), 

 Mount Saint Scholastica's Academy (Roman 

 Catholic), and has a State soldiers' orphans' 

 home. 



Atchison was named in honor of David Rice 

 Au-hison, a United States Senator, the leader 

 of a group of people in sympathy with slavery, 

 who settled here in 1854. The place became a 

 city in 1858. 



ATHABASKA, athabas'ka, or ATHA- 

 BASCA, an English corruption of the Indian 

 \\-urd Athepescow, which means a place of hay 

 and reeds. The name has been given in turn 

 to a tribe of Indians (see ATHAPASCAN INDIANS), 

 to a river and a lake in Canada, to a large 

 district of the Northwest Territories, to a 

 mountain and to a town in Alberta. Each of 

 these is described below. 



Athabaska River, in Alberta, a part of the 

 great Mackenzie River system. The Athabaska 

 rises on the eastern slope of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains; one of its branches starts near Yellow- 

 head Pass, through which the Grand Trunk 

 Pacific finds a way over the mountains, and 

 another rises farther south, in Athabaska Pass, 

 just north of Mount Hooker. From its source 

 the river flows east and then north, pouring 

 its waters into Athabaska Lake after a course 

 of nearly 750 miles. Emerging from the west- 

 ern end of Athabaska Lake it flows northward 

 for fifteen miles and unites with the Peace 

 River to form the Slave River, which in turn 

 passes into the Mackenzie. The drainage basin 

 of the Athabaska River comprises 58,900 square 

 miles. 



Athabaska Lake, into which the river flows, 

 has an area of 2342 square miles (considerably 

 more than twice the size of Rhode Island), of 

 which 1.041 square miles are in Alberta and 

 th* remainder in Saskatchewan. It is the 

 fourth largest lake lying wholly in the Do- 

 minion. Its average width, from north to 

 south, is from twenty to thirty miles, and its 

 I. nu'li from cast to west is about 200 miles. 

 Its name (see above) accurately describes most 

 of the country surrounding the lake, especially 

 -outhcrn shores, which are low and sandy, 

 northern banks an hiuhcr, rocky and 

 coven. 1 with timber, chirlly fir, spruce and 

 poplar. The level of the lake is about 700 

 feet above that of the sea. Small steamers 

 j'ly tin- l.ke and the lower Athabaska I< 



Athabaska, a former district of Canada, or- 



m 1882 as a part of the Northwest 



Territories. It was enlarged in 1895, and then 



contained 251,300 square miles. It lay between 

 the parallels 55 N. and 60 N., and between 

 the meridians 100 W. and 120 W. In 1905 the 



ATHABASKA 



Part of Western Canada, showing the former 

 district of Athabaska. in solid black. The light, 

 broken lines show the boundaries of other dis- 

 tricts of Northwest Territories before 1905 : the 

 heavier lines are present provincial boundaries. 



district of Athabaska was divided : the western 

 part became the northern half of Alberta; the 

 central part, the northern half of Saskatch- 

 ewan; and a small strip on the east was given 

 to the district of Keewatin. This last part 

 in 1912 was added to the province of Mani- 

 toba. For details of the physical characteristics 

 and other interesting information about this 

 section, see ALBERTA; MANITOBA; SASKATCH- 

 EWAN. 



Athabaska, MOUNT, one of the lofty snow- 

 topped peaks in the Canadian Rockies. It 

 towers to a height of 11,700 feet above sea 

 level, and is situated in the west central part 

 of Alberta, near the British Columbia boun- 

 dary, only a few miles east of Athabaska Pass, 

 in which the river of the same name rises. Its 

 position is 52 10' north latitude. 



Athabaska, formerly called ATHABASKA 

 LANDING, a town in Alberta, at the head of 

 navigation on Athabaska River, and 100 miles 

 north of Edmonton on the Canadian Northern 

 Railway. It is in the midst of a rich lumber- 

 ing district, which gives it its chief industry, 

 the milling and shipping of lumber. Athabaska 

 was originally a fur-trading post, and its pop- 

 ulation averaged about 200. With the building 

 of the railroad, however, has come an increase 

 m population; the estimated population in 

 1916 was about 1,000. P.O. 



ATHAPASCAN, athapa*' kan. INDIANS. 

 a widely distributed family of North American 

 Indians \\ho were scattered over that vast 

 region of Western Canada and the United 

 States from Alaska as far south as New M< \- 

 ico and Arizona. There were three main divi- 



