The Finlay River is a 402 km long river in north-central

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

flowing north and thence south from Thutade Lake in the Omineca Mountains to

Williston Lake Williston Lake is a reservoir created by the W. A. C. Bennett Dam and is located in the Northern Interior of British Columbia, Canada. Geography The lake fills the basin of the upper Peace River, backing into the Rocky Mountain Trench which is ...

, the impounded waters of the Peace River formed by the completion of the W.A.C. Bennett Dam in 1968. Prior to this, the Finlay joined with the Parsnip River to form the Peace. The headwaters of the Finlay at Thutade Lake are considered the ultimate source of the Mackenzie River.''Atlas of Canada: Rivers of Canada'' page
Deserters Canyon is located just north of Williston Lake. The Finlay drains an area of 43,000 square kilometres and discharges at a mean rate of 600 cubic metres per second. Major tributaries of the Finlay include the Ospika, Ingenika, Warneford,

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelv ...

, Toodoggone, and Firesteel Rivers (the Ospika now enters Lake Williston directly, however). Located in a remote part of the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outsi ...

, there are no population centres along the river, however, there is a small First Nations community, Fort Ware, located at the junction of the Finlay and Warneford. Tatlatui Provincial Park protects the area of the Tatlatui Range, where Thutade Lake is located. The Finlay River is named for the

explorer Exploration refers to the historical practice of discovering remote lands. It is studied by geographers and historians. Two major eras of exploration occurred in human history: one of convergence, and one of divergence. The first, covering most ...

John Finlay, who travelled a short way up the river in 1797. The first European to journey its length to its source was the

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 mo ...

r and

Samuel Black in 1824. The river was the eastern half of the northern boundary of the Colony of British Columbia at the time of its creation in 1858, north of which was the

North-Western Territory The North-Western Territory was a region of British North America extant until 1870 and named for where it lay in relation to Rupert's Land. Due to the lack of development, exploration, and cartographic limits of the time, the exact boundari ...

; the western half of the boundary was the Nass River and from 1862 to 1863 it was briefly the southern boundary of the Stickeen Territories (Stikine Territory) which had been formed from the North-Western Territory in response to the

Peace Peace is a concept of societal friendship and harmony in the absence of hostility and violence. In a social sense, peace is commonly used to mean a lack of conflict (such as war) and freedom from fear of violence between individuals or groups. ...

and

Stikine Gold Rush The Stikine Gold Rush was a minor but important gold rush in the Stikine Country of northwestern British Columbia, Canada. The rush's discoverer was Alexander "Buck" Choquette, who staked a claim at Choquette Bar in 1861, just downstream from the c ...

es and which was amalgamated with the Colony of British Columbia in the following year.

Tributaries

* Firesteel River * Toodoggone River * Fox River * Kwadacha River *

Paul River Paul may refer to: *Paul (given name), a given name (includes a list of people with that name) * Paul (surname), a list of people People Christianity *Paul the Apostle (AD c.5–c.64/65), also known as Saul of Tarsus or Saint Paul, early Chri ...

* Akie River * Ingenika River * Davis River * Mesilinka River * Osilinka River

References

External links

A book about the exploration of the Finlay River
{{Authority control Northern Interior of British Columbia Rivers of the Omineca Mountains Cassiar Mountains Hudson's Bay Company trading posts Cassiar Land District