Athabasca Pass (el. ) is a high

mountain pass A mountain pass is a navigable route through a mountain range or over a ridge. Since many of the world's mountain ranges have presented formidable barriers to travel, passes have played a key role in trade, war, and both Human migration, human a ...

in the

Canadian Rockies The Canadian Rockies (french: Rocheuses canadiennes) or Canadian Rocky Mountains, comprising both the Alberta Rockies and the British Columbian Rockies, is the Canadian segment of the North American Rocky Mountains. It is the easternmost part ...

on the border between

Alberta Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...

and

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...

. In

fur trade The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals have been the mos ...

days it connected

Jasper House Jasper House National Historic Site, in Jasper National Park, Alberta, is the site of a trading post on the Athabasca River that functioned in two different locations from 1813 to 1884 as a major staging and supply post for travel through the Can ...

on the

Athabasca River The Athabasca River (French: ''Rivière Athabasca'') is a river in Alberta, Canada, which originates at the Columbia Icefield in Jasper National Park and flows more than before emptying into Lake Athabasca. Much of the land along its banks is pro ...

with

Boat Encampment Boat Encampment is a ghost town in the East Kootenay region of southeastern British Columbia. The locality was at the tip of the Big Bend on the north shore of the Columbia River. The general vicinity, on the former Big Bend Highway, was by road a ...

on the

Columbia River The Columbia River (Upper Chinook: ' or '; Sahaptin: ''Nch’i-Wàna'' or ''Nchi wana''; Sinixt dialect'' '') is the largest river in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The river rises in the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia, C ...

.Whittaker, John A.
"Athbasca Pass — BC — Alberta Heritage Trail"
''British Columbia History'', Vol. 44, No. 2, Summer 2011, p. 19. Victoria: British Columbia Historical Federation. The pass lies between Mount Brown and

McGillivray Ridge McGillivray Ridge is located on the border of Alberta and British Columbia. Sometime before 1814, this massive mountain was called McGillvray's Rock after William McGillivray of the NWC. See also * List of peaks on the Alberta–British Columbi ...

. It is south of

Yellowhead Pass The Yellowhead Pass is a mountain pass across the Continental Divide of the Americas in the Canadian Rockies. It is located on the provincial boundary between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, and lies within Jasper Nat ...

and north of

Howse Pass Howse is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Joseph Howse (1774-1852), English explorer, linguist, and scholar * Hilary Ewing Howse (1866–1938), American businessman and politician * Neville Howse (1863–1930), Australian ...

. The

Committee's Punch Bowl The Committee's Punch Bowl is a small tarn on the continental divide straddling the border between the Canadian provinces of Alberta and British Columbia. George Simpson, governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, named the lake for the London-base ...

, a glacial lake on the continental divide at the summit of the pass, is the headwaters of the

Whirlpool River The Whirlpool River is a short river in Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada. It is an early tributary of the Athabasca River. The Whirlpool is formed in Athabasca Pass, collecting meltwater from the Hooker Icefield and the Mount Brown Icefield. ...

, a

tributary A tributary, or affluent, is a stream or river that flows into a larger stream or main stem (or parent) river or a lake. A tributary does not flow directly into a sea or ocean. Tributaries and the main stem river drain the surrounding drainage ...

of the

. It also has an outlet to Pacific Creek, a tributary of the

to the south. Athabaca Pass is first mentioned in the historical record in the papers of British explorer David Thompson, who was shown the route in 1811 by an

Iroquois The Iroquois ( or ), officially the Haudenosaunee ( meaning "people of the longhouse"), are an Iroquoian-speaking confederacy of First Nations peoples in northeast North America/ Turtle Island. They were known during the colonial years to ...

man named Thomas. It became a major point on the fur trade route between

Rupert's Land Rupert's Land (french: Terre de Rupert), or Prince Rupert's Land (french: Terre du Prince Rupert, link=no), was a territory in British North America which comprised the Hudson Bay drainage basin; this was further extended from Rupert's Land t ...

and the

Columbia District The Columbia District was a fur trading The fur trade is a worldwide industry dealing in the acquisition and sale of animal fur. Since the establishment of a world fur market in the early modern period, furs of boreal, polar and cold ...

, used by the

York Factory Express The York Factory Express, usually called "the Express" and also the Columbia Express and the Communication, was a 19th-century fur brigade operated by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC). Roughly in length, it was the main overland connection between ...

. and in recognition of that usage was designated a

National Historic Site of Canada National Historic Sites of Canada (french: Lieux historiques nationaux du Canada) are places that have been designated by the federal Minister of the Environment An environment minister (sometimes minister of the environment or secretary of t ...

in 1971.

References

External links

Dr. Peter Murphy - La Grande Traverse Part 5
(22 Sept. 2013) — YouTube video of presentation by Dr. Peter Murphy, Professor Emeritus of Forestry with the Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, on the route through Athabasca Pass. {{coord, 52, 22, 35, N, 118, 11, 00, W, display=title Mountain passes of Alberta Mountain passes of British Columbia National Historic Sites in Alberta National Historic Sites in British Columbia Canadian Rockies Jasper National Park Landforms on the National Historic Sites of Canada register