Christina Lake is an elongate

lake A lake is an area filled with water, localized in a basin, surrounded by land, and distinct from any river or other outlet that serves to feed or drain the lake. Lakes lie on land and are not part of the ocean, although, like the much large ...

northern Alberta Northern Alberta is a geographic region located in the Canadian province of Alberta. An informally defined cultural region, the boundaries of Northern Alberta are not fixed. Under some schemes, the region encompasses everything north of the cen ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

, located near Highway 881 east of Conklin, between Lac La Biche and

Fort McMurray Fort McMurray ( ) is an urban service area in the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo in Alberta, Canada. It is located in northeast Alberta, in the middle of the Athabasca oil sands, surrounded by boreal forest. It has played a significan ...

. Christina Lake and the

Christina River The Christina River is a tributary of the Delaware River, approximately 35 miles (56 km) long, in northern Delaware in the United States, also flowing through small areas of southeastern Pennsylvania and northeastern Maryland. Near i ...

are named to honour Christine Gordon, originally from Scotland, who was the first white woman to live permanently in the Fort McMurray area.

Water and Watershed

Christina Lake lies at an elevation of and has a total area of . It has a mean depth of , a maximum depth of , and a drainage area of . The lake has six permanent inlets and one permanent outlet, the Jackfish River at its western end. The Jackfish River flows before it empties into the

, a tributary of the Clearwater River. The waters eventually reach the

Arctic Ocean The Arctic Ocean is the smallest and shallowest of the world's five major oceans. It spans an area of approximately and is known as the coldest of all the oceans. The International Hydrographic Organization (IHO) recognizes it as an ocean, a ...

via the Athabasca and MacKenzie Rivers.

Lake History

Christina Lake and the

were named to honour Christine Gordon, originally from Scotland, who was the first white woman to live permanently in the Fort McMurray area, where she remained until her death in the 1940s. She was highly respected by the community, including the

First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...

and

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples of the Americas, Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United State ...

. Gordon, partly based on knowledge gleaned from a Scottish home nursing book, made her own treatments for illnesses and injuries. She could "splint a broken arm, lower a fever, and mix herbal remedies." By 1914 she owned and operated a post in Fort McMurray, in competition with the Hudson's Bay Company. The hamlet of Conklin was originally situated on the extreme northwestern end of Christina Lake, adjacent to the outlet at the Jackfish River. When the

Alberta and Great Waterways Railway Northern Alberta Railways was a Canadian railway which served northern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. Jointly owned by both Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, NAR existed as a separate company from 1929 until 19 ...

(which eventually became part of the

Northern Alberta Railway Northern Alberta Railways was a Canadian railway which served northern Alberta and northeastern British Columbia. Jointly owned by both Canadian National Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway, NAR existed as a separate company from 1929 until 19 ...

and later the

Athabasca Northern Railway The Athabasca Northern Railway is a shortline railway in Alberta, Canada. Originally built as the Alberta and Great Waterways Railway between 1909 and 1925, the line runs between Boyle, Alberta and Fort McMurray, Alberta. It eventually became par ...

) reached Conklin in 1921, the town was relocated alongside the railway tracks. Christina Lake was an important centre for the local

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 ecosystem, boreal, polar and cold temperate mammalian animals h ...

from 1940 to 1960.

Mink Mink are dark-colored, semiaquatic, carnivorous mammals of the genera '' Neogale'' and '' Mustela'' and part of the family Mustelidae, which also includes weasels, otters, and ferrets. There are two extant species referred to as "mink": ...

pelts from several mink farms in the area were transferred by canoe and dogsled to the railway siding for shipment to markets. From 1940 to 1960 there was heavy commercial fishing in Christina Lake, and a fish processing plant was located at the outlet to the Jackfish River.

Forest Fires

The Lac la Biche Forest that surrounds some of Christina Lake experiences a higher-than-average number of lightning storms.

Resource Management

Timber

There are small stands of conifers, mixed wood and pure aspen in the area, but most of the timber is not merchantable.

Energy resources

Christina Lake lies within the Athabasca Oil Sands region, and

Cenovus Energy Cenovus Energy Inc. (pronounced se-nō-vus) is an integrated oil and natural gas company headquartered in Calgary, Alberta. Cenovus was formed in 2009 when Encana Corporation split into two distinct companies, with Cenovus becoming focused on oi ...

has been operating its Christina Lake project in the area since 2000. The Christina Lake project is a steam-assisted gravity drainage (

SAGD Steam-assisted gravity drainage (SAGD; "Sag-D") is an enhanced oil recovery technology for producing heavy crude oil and bitumen. It is an advanced form of steam stimulation in which a pair of horizontal wells is drilled into the oil reservoir, on ...

) project that recovers

bitumen Asphalt, also known as bitumen (, ), is a sticky, black, highly viscous liquid or semi-solid form of petroleum. It may be found in natural deposits or may be a refined product, and is classed as a pitch. Before the 20th century, the term a ...

from the

McMurray Formation The McMurray Formation is a stratigraphic unit of Early Cretaceous age (late Barremian to Aptian stage) of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin in northeastern Alberta. It takes the name from Fort McMurray and was first described from outcrops a ...

, which lies at a depth of at that location. Cenovus considers the Christina Lake project to be "top-tier", one of their "two industry-leading oil sands producing projects" with "huge potential for growth." In addition to

, the area hosts

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

reserves, which were already being extracted in 1991.

References

{{authority control Christina Lake Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo