Great Bear Lake

Freshwater lake in the western Northwest Territories, Canada, on the Arctic Circle; area 31,153 sq km/12,028 sq mi; depth 413 m/1,356 ft. It is the largest lake in Canada.

Great Bear Lake was explored in around 1800 by European traders. Fort Franklin (later Fort Deline) was built there by English explorer John Franklin in 1825. It has an outlet in the Great Bear River, which then flows into the Mackenzie River. Valuable mineral deposits around its shores include silver and copper; pitchblende – which yields radium and uranium – was found on its eastern shore in 1930, but this was exhausted by the 1960s. The fish population was reduced by pitchblende mining and its waste products, but is now building up again and includes trout, whitefish, and pike.