Lake Evans () is a freshwater lake in the municipality of
Eeyou Istchee James Bay, in the administrative region of
Nord-du-Québec
Nord-du-Québec (; ) is the largest, but the least populous, of the seventeen administrative regions of Quebec, Canada.
Spread over nearly 14 degrees of latitude, north of the 49th parallel, the region covers on the Labrador Peninsula, making ...
, in western
Quebec
Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...
.
This lake is on the
Broadback River.
Geography
Surrounded by a generally flat lands including marshes, Lake Evans is located south-east of
James Bay
James Bay (, ; ) is a large body of water located on the southern end of Hudson Bay in Canada. It borders the provinces of Quebec and Ontario, and is politically part of Nunavut. Its largest island is Akimiski Island.
Numerous waterways of the ...
. This lake has an area of . It receives the waters of the "Lake Le Gardeur" (adjacent to the east side) through the
Théodat River and Lake Dana (west side neighbor) through Pastukamau pass. Lake Evans is the largest lake on the
Broadback River.
Lake Evans has deep bays that give it an irregular contour. Areas surrounding the lake have a generally flat topography, with several marshes, except for the area south of the lake where culminate the Reid and Middleton Mountains.
For
canoeists, the lake is renowned for the difficult
portage
Portage or portaging ( CA: ; ) is the practice of carrying water craft or cargo over land, either around an obstacle in a river, or between two bodies of water. A path where items are regularly carried between bodies of water is also called a '' ...
over Longue Pointe
peninsula
A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula.
Etymology
The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...
.
Toponymy
Evans Lake, receiving this name around 1910, was named in honour of Sir
John Evans (1823-1908), archaeologist, geologist and paper manufacturer, an influential member of several learned societies. Evans held the positions of Treasurer of the "Royal Society" from 1878 to 1898, President of the "Numismatic Society" from 1872 to 1908, and president of the "Society of Antiquaries" London in 1885. Evans also is the author in numismatic field of books now considered classics, and in the tools and weapons of prehistoric populations of Britain.
["Names and locations of Québec", the work of the "Commission de toponymie du Québec" (Geographical Names Board of Quebec), published in 1994 and 1996 in the form of a printed illustrated dictionary, and under that a CD-ROM produced by the Micro-Intel in 1997 from the dictionary]
Prior to the formalization as "''Lac Evans''" on December 5, 1968, by the
Commission de toponymie du Québec
The Commission de toponymie du Québec (, ''Toponymy Commission of Québec'') is the Government of Québec's public body responsible for cataloging, preserving, making official and publicizing Québec's place names and their origins according to th ...
, this lake was known as Big Lake,
Long Lake, or Turgeon Lake.
History
In 1817, John Pitt Greely was sent by the
Hudson's Bay Company
The Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), originally the Governor and Company of Adventurers of England Trading Into Hudson’s Bay, is a Canadian holding company of department stores, and the oldest corporation in North America. It was the owner of the ...
(HBC) to set up a new
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 ...
post on
Lake Waswanipi in order to compete with the
North West Company
The North West Company was a Fur trade in Canada, Canadian fur trading business headquartered in Montreal from 1779 to 1821. It competed with increasing success against the Hudson's Bay Company in the regions that later became Western Canada a ...
. But since the rivers going to Lake Waswanipi were frozen early, he was forced to stay at Evans Lake (called Big Lake at the time) where he established Big Lake House. Greely, along with his wife and two of his men, Hendric Swainson and Simon Corston, starved to death there in 1818. The following year, a post was established at Lake Waswanipi by the HBC and Big Lake House was abandoned by 1821.
The lake was explored and described by geologist
Robert Bell and O'Sullivan Surveyor in 1900 and 1901.
See also
*
Rupert Bay
*
List of lakes of Canada
This is a partial list of lakes of Canada. Canada has an extremely large number of lakes, with the number of lakes larger than three square kilometres being estimated at close to 31,752 by the Atlas of Canada. Of these, 561 lakes have a surface ar ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans
Lakes of Nord-du-Québec