Athabasca River

The Athabasca River starts from the Columbia Glacier of the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park in Alberta, Canada. The great and grand Athabasca Falls is found upstream around 30 km 19 mi from the Jasper townsite.

The name Athabasca originates from the Woods Cree word aðapaskaw, which signifies "where there are plants one after another", likely a reference to the spotty vegetation along the river.David Thompson and Thomas the Iroquois went through Athabasca Pass in 1811. In 1862, the Athabasca Springs zone was crossed amid the Cariboo Goldrush by the Overlander Party.

The northern section of the Athabasca River turned out to be a piece of a noteworthy transportation arrange in 1921 when the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway achieved Waterways close Fort McMurray, making it the northernmost point on the North American railroad matrix around then. Payload for goals more distant north was transported to Waterways and exchanged to freight ships, after which armadas of tugboats took them up the stream to goals in the Athabasca and Mackenzie River watersheds.