Moose Lake is a relatively small lake in north-eastern

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

, Canada, located a few kilometres west of the town of

Bonnyville Bonnyville is a town situated in East Northern Alberta, Canada between Cold Lake and St. Paul. The Municipal District (MD) of Bonnyville No. 87 surrounds the community. The community derives its name from Father Bonnin, a Roman Catholic prie ...

. It is fed by the Mooselake River and drains north into the Beaver River (which in turn flows to

Hudson Bay Hudson Bay, sometimes called Hudson's Bay (usually historically), is a large body of Saline water, saltwater in northeastern Canada with a surface area of . It is located north of Ontario, west of Quebec, northeast of Manitoba, and southeast o ...

). There is another body of water named ''Moose Lake'', 65 km NW of

Fort McKay Fort McKay ( ) or Fort MacKay is a community in northeast Alberta, Canada, located at the confluence of the Athabasca and MacKay rivers. It is approximately north of Fort McMurray via Highway 63 and Fort McKay Road. The community has an eleva ...

Name

Moose Lake was known to early

French-Canadian French Canadians, referred to as Canadiens mainly before the nineteenth century, are an ethnic group descended from French colonists first arriving in France's colony of Canada in 1608. The vast majority of French Canadians live in the prov ...

fur traders as , which translates as Moose Lake. This in turn may have been a direct translation of its

Cree The Cree, or nehinaw (, ), are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people, numbering more than 350,000 in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada, First Nations. They live prim ...

name of the same meaning, .

History

Around 1768 William Pink passed the mouth of the Mooselake River. In 1789 Angus Shaw of the North West Company built a post on the northwest shore of the lake called or Shaw House. It was close to where the Mooselake River enters Franchere Bay. The river was so shallow that canoes were taken up the river empty and goods portaged overland. It was in good beaver country and within easy reach of Fort George to the south on the North Saskatchewan. Buffalo

pemmican Pemmican () (also pemican in older sources) is a mixture of tallow, dried meat, and sometimes dried berries. A calorie-rich food, it can be used as a key component in prepared meals or eaten raw. Historically, it was an important part of indigeno ...

was carried north to the lake and then via the Beaver River to

Lac Île-à-la-Crosse Lac Île-à-la-Crosse is a Y-shaped lake in the north-central region of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan along the course of the Churchill River (Hudson Bay), Churchill River. At the centre of the "Y" ...

to feed the voyageurs on their long journey to Lake Athabasca. In the 1792–93 season Moose Lake produced 64 of the 392 total packs of beaver produced by the Churchill River Department. In 1798 David Thompson reached the lake from Fort George.

Geography

The major inflow is the Thinlake River, which enters the westernmost point of the lake in Franchere Bay, and the major outflow is the Mooselake River which exits the lake through the northern shore of Franchere Bay. Moose Lake Provincial Park straddles the point separating Franchere Bay and Vezeau Bay and its western edge is the Mooselake River.Alberta Tourism
Moose Lake Provincial Park
/ref> Most of the shoreline development is on the eastern shores of Vezeau Bay and Bonnyville Beach, comprising several unincorporated communities including Pelican Narrows. There are several Christian

summer camp A summer camp, also known as a sleepaway camp or residential camp, is a supervised overnight program for children conducted during the summer vacation from school in many countries. Children and adolescents who attend summer residential camps ...

s on Franchere Bay, including a

Baptist Baptists are a Christian denomination, denomination within Protestant Christianity distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer's baptism) and doing so by complete Immersion baptism, immersion. Baptist churches ge ...

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a movement within the broader Evangelical wing of Protestantism, Protestant Christianity that emphasizes direct personal experience of God in Christianity, God through Baptism with the Holy Spirit#Cl ...

, and a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

camp on the North shore and a Ukrainian Orthodox camp on the South shore. Cyanobacteria (blue-green algae) was found in 2021 lurking in the lake. Alberta Health issued a statement stating not to go in the lake.

Fishing

The lake supports some commercial fishing and recreational fishing is also popular. Sport fish in Moose Lake include

Northern Pike The northern pike (''Esox lucius'') is a species of carnivorous fish of the genus ''Esox'' (pikes). They are commonly found in brackish water, moderately salty and fresh waters of the Northern Hemisphere (''i.e.'' holarctic in distribution). T ...

Lake Whitefish The lake whitefish (''Coregonus clupeaformis'') is a species of freshwater whitefish from North America. Lake whitefish are found throughout much of Canada and parts of the northern United States, including all of the Great Lakes. The lake white ...

Walleye The walleye (''Sander vitreus'', Synonym (taxonomy), synonym ''Stizostedion vitreum''), also called the walleyed pike, yellow pike, yellow pikeperch or yellow pickerel, is a freshwater perciform fish native to most of Canada and to the Northern ...

, and

Perch Perch is a common name for freshwater fish from the genus ''Perca'', which belongs to the family Percidae of the large order Perciformes. The name comes from , meaning the type species of this genus, the European perch (''P. fluviatilis'') ...

. There is a yearly Walleye tournament in the lake that speaks to the abundance of recreational fishing.

References

External links

* {{authority control Municipal District of Bonnyville No. 87 Lakes of Alberta North West Company forts