The Mackenzie River is a major river system in northwestern North America. It is exceeded only in basin size by the Mississippi-Missouri system. The entire Mackenzie River system is 2,635 miles long and passes through many lakes before emptying into the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean. The Mackenzie River alone is 1,025 miles long when measured from Great Slave Lake. It begins at Great Slave Lake where the elevation is 512 feet above sea level. Great Slave Lake can be as deep as 2,000 feet in certain places. It is filled with clear water on the eastern side and shallow, murky water on the western side. The headwaters of the Mackenzie River include numerous large rivers. The drainage basins of the Mackenzie River include the Liard River, Peace River, and Athabasca River. The ice that forms on the Mackenzie River over the winter months begins the break up in early to mid-May in the southern sections. Ice covering some portions of the Mackenzie River can break up as late as the end of May. The Mackenzie River basin is home to a very small and sparse population despite the natural resources available in this area. This area is home to muskrat, marten, beaver, lynx, and fox. Pulpwood and other small conifer trees can be found here. Petroleum and natural gas are usually the underlying reason larger settlements have formed in this area (Robinson 1999). 

References

Robinson, J. Lewis. 1999. Mackenzie River. July 26. Accessed May 2017, 2017. https://www.britannica.com/place/Mackenzie-River#ref466063.

The Great Slave Lake was found in 1771 by Samuel Hearne (Ernst). Many others passed through during the Klondike Gold Rush in 1896-1899, but the region surrounding the Great Slave Lake remained greatly unoccupied. In 1930, a radioactive uranium mineral called pitchblende, or uraninite, was discovered on the shore of the Great Slave Lake and incentivized colonizers. 1934, gold was discovered on Yellowknife Bay, which led to a Yellowknife community settlement. Today, additional communities in this region include Hay River, Fort Resolution, Fort Providence, and Behchoko. The Great Slave Lake is the fifth largest lake is North America and is part of the Mackenzie River System. The Lake gets its name from a tribe of Native Americans called Slavery First Nations (National Geographic). This tribe fished for sustenance and did not explore farther than their immediate surroundings. Their neighbors, the Cree, thought the tribe was weak and often called them awonak, which means slaves. Explorer Peter Pond named the lake the Slave Lake in 1785 and then the Great Slave Lake in 1790. The Lake is known for its variety of types of fish, including trout, pike, and Arctic grayling. The Great Slave Lake is covered in snow and ice 8 months out of the year. The Great Slave Lake region is also the home to the largest intact forest in the world, the Boreal Forest, which contains evergreens, bogs, shallow lakes, and ponds (Pala). This Great Slave Lake cove is the habitat for caribou, waterfowl, beavers, and many fish species.

Ernst, Chloe. "The History and Sites of Great Slave Lake: A Visitor's Guide.” PlanetWare.com. Accessed April 06, 2017. http://www.planetware.com/northwest-territories/great-slave-lake-cdn-nt-ntgs.htm.

National Geographic, February 2002, 1. Global Reference on the Environment, Energy, and Natural Resources (accessed April 5, 2017). http://find.galegroup.com/grnr/infomark.do?&source=gale&idigest=6f8f4a3faafd67e66fa023866730b0a1&prodId=GRNR&userGroupName=bucknell_it&tabID=T003&docId=A83374988&type=retrieve&PDFRange=%5B%5D&contentSet=IAC-Documents&version=1.0.

Pala, Christopher. "Forests forever. (Forest conservation in Canada)." Earth Island Journal, September 22, 2010.