Lesser Slave Lake

Lake in central Alberta, 210 km/130 mi north-northwest of Edmonton. It has a surface area of 1,168 sq km/451 sq mi, and measures 100 km/60 mi in length and 5–20 km/3–12 mi in width. The lake takes its name from the Athabaskan Slavey people who once inhabited the region; the epithet Lesser was added to distinguish it from Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories.

The Lesser Slave Lake is fed by several small rivers, and empties to the east (via the marshy Lesser Slave River) into the Athabasca River. The town of Slave Lake on its southeastern shore stands at a site where the hunting or war parties of the indigenous peoples formerly used to gather, and there are still several Indian reserves along the lake's southern shore. In the 1890s, the Klondike gold rush attracted many settlers to the area, and the railway arrived here in 1915. Oil is important to the region's economy, as are commercial fishing and forestry. The Lesser Slave Lake Bird Observatory was opened in 1994.